Scotland lagging behind in delivery of palliative and end of life care

● Comparisons with Denmark and New Zealand show some deficienies

Scotland is fairing worse than similar-sizedcountrieswhenit comes to delivering end of life carewitharoundathirdofpeople in hospital on any given day likely to die within one year.

Experts from Denmark, New Zealand and Scotland met in Glasgow earlier this week to discuss the correlation between hospital admissions and the likelihood of death.

In all three countries studies have revealed that the number of people who would benefit from palliative and end of life care but do not necessarily receive it is higher than previously thought.

Of the three countries with similar populations, wealth and healthcare systems, Scotland has the greatest chance of a person admitted to hospital dying within 12 months at 30 per cent, compared to Denmark with 22 per cent and New Zealand which has 14.5 per cent of people dying within a year of being admitted.

This highlights the role of hospitals in caring for those at the end of life and the need for improving identification of those who would benefit from specialist support.

Compared with New Zealand, hospitals in Scotland have a higher number of older people receiving care. The proportion of those aged over

0 Professor David Clark, Lene Jarlbaek from REHPA, Prof Merryn Gott from Auckland University and Richard Meade from Marie Curie more around finding out that patients needs are regarding their hopes, expectations and what kind of care they would like to have.

He said: “We think there’s a great opportunity here to reach out to people who have got end of life care needs, who are present in large numbers every day – day in, day out in Scottish hospitals. There needs to be discussions around what their hopes and expectations are where they would like to be and the kind of care they would like to have”.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Scotland already has a very good reputation for providing high quality palliative and end of life care. But we are determined to keep improving. One of the key areas we want to improve is on the consistency of services.

“Through our Framework for Action on Palliative and End of Life Care, we want to make sure that everyone receives high quality palliative care – tailored to their own symptoms and life circumstances.”