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Original research
Seeking Excellence in End of Life Care UK (SEECare UK): a UK multi-centred service evaluation
  1. Simon Tavabie1,
  2. Yinting Ta2,
  3. Eleanor Stewart3,
  4. Oliver Tavabie4,
  5. Sarah Bowers5,6,
  6. Nicola White7,
  7. Cate Seton-Jones8,
  8. Stephen Bass9,
  9. Mark Taubert10,
  10. Anja Berglund11,
  11. Suzanne Ford-Dunn11,
  12. Sarah Cox12 and
  13. Ollie Minton11
  1. 1 Transforming End of Life Care, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK
  2. 2 Palliative Medicine, St Bartholomew's Hospital, London, UK
  3. 3 Palliative Medicine, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, UK
  4. 4 Gastroenterology, Kingston Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Kingston upon Thames, UK
  5. 5 Palliative Medicine, NHS Tayside, Dundee, UK
  6. 6 Medicine, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
  7. 7 Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Department, Division of Psychiatry, University College London, London, UK
  8. 8 Palliative Medicine, Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice Care, Farnham, UK
  9. 9 Palliative Care Team, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, UK
  10. 10 Velindre Cancer Centre, Velindre NHS Trust, Cardiff, UK
  11. 11 Palliative Medicine, University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Worthing, UK
  12. 12 Palliative Medicine, Chelsea and Westminster Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Simon Tavabie, Transforming End of Life Care, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London WC1E 6BT, UK; simon.tavabie{at}nhs.net

Abstract

Objective To evaluate the care of patients dying in hospital without support from specialists in palliative care (SPC), better understand their needs and factors influencing their care.

Methods Prospective UK-wide service evaluation including all dying adult inpatients unknown to SPC, excluding those in emergency departments/intensive care units. Holistic needs were assessed through a standardised proforma.

Results 88 hospitals, 284 patients. 93% had unmet holistic needs, including physical symptoms (75%) and psycho-socio-spiritual needs (86%). People were more likely to have unmet needs and require SPC intervention at a district general hospital (DGH) than a teaching hospital/cancer centre (unmet need 98.1% vs 91.2% p0.02; intervention 70.9% vs 50.8% p0.001) and when end-of-life care plans (EOLCP) were not used (unmet need 98.3% vs 90.3% p0.006; intervention 67.2% vs 53.3% p0.02). Multivariable analyses demonstrated the independent influence of teaching/cancer hospitals (adjusted OR (aOR)0.44 CI 0.26 to 0.73) and increased SPC medical staffing (aOR1.69 CI 1.04 to 2.79) on need for intervention, however, integrating the use of EOLCP reduced the impact of SPC medical staffing.

Conclusion People dying in hospitals have significant and poorly identified unmet needs. Further evaluation is required to understand the relationships between patient, staff and service factors influencing this. The development, effective implementation and evaluation of structured individualised EOLCP should be a research funding priority.

  • end of life care
  • quality of life
  • service evaluation
  • supportive care
  • hospital care

Data availability statement

No data are available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/spcare-2023-004177

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    Data availability statement

    No data are available. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as supplementary information.

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @simontavabie, @OTavabie, @SarahPBowers, @nicolagwhite, @lumpyeggbass, @ProfMarkTaubert, @drol007

    • Contributors ST, OM, SF-D and SC conceived the project. ST, YT, ES, SPB, CS-J, SB, MT, AB, SC and OM designed the project plan and resources. ST and OM oversaw the collection and collation via the APM Office. ST, OT, NW and OM performed statistical analyses. ST, YT, ES, OT, SPB, NW, CS-J, SB, MT, AB, SF-B, SC and OM contributed to the manuscript. ST acts as guarantor to the project.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Supplemental material This content has been supplied by the author(s). It has not been vetted by BMJ Publishing Group Limited (BMJ) and may not have been peer-reviewed. Any opinions or recommendations discussed are solely those of the author(s) and are not endorsed by BMJ. BMJ disclaims all liability and responsibility arising from any reliance placed on the content. Where the content includes any translated material, BMJ does not warrant the accuracy and reliability of the translations (including but not limited to local regulations, clinical guidelines, terminology, drug names and drug dosages), and is not responsible for any error and/or omissions arising from translation and adaptation or otherwise.