Background Hospices undertake diverse social inclusion strategies to enable hospice access for minority population. Yet, utilisation and access to hospice care among British minorities remain scanty.

Objective To explore perspectives of older British South Asians on use of hospices at the end-of-life.

Design A constructivist grounded theory study.

Methods A secondary qualitative data analysis was taken on views of 55 older British South Asian participants, recruited using purposive sampling. Participants were approached through their community leaders and at open meetings of 11 local South Asian community groups of East London, England. Five focus groups and 29 semi-structured interviews were conducted. Thematic analysis was taken.

Results Three themes arrived: misconceptions, expectations and strategies. Participants described misconceptions related to hospice access including payable hospices and image of nursing home care as hospice care. Analysis also shows that lack of experience often created such misconceptions. Expectations include change in physical and emotional surroundings and enabling home care hospice services. Participants reported various ethnic-centred inclusion strategies to promote hospice concept among this minority population.

Conclusion Current social inclusion strategies of hospice seems to promote the spread of hospice concept among these older inner city minorities. However, access and utilisation of hospice services remain ‘distant’ to real usage. Future strategies should focus micro-level social interventions and mass media based interventions to promote hospice usage among this population.