Journal article
Hospice at home services in England: a national survey
- Abstract:
- Objective Hospice at Home (HAH) services aim to enable patients to be cared for and die at home, if that is their choice and achieve a ‘good death’. A national survey, in 2017, aimed to describe and compare the features of HAH services and understand key enablers to service provision. Methods Service managers of adult HAH services in the ‘Hospice UK’ and National Association for Hospice at Home directories within England were invited to participate. Information on service configuration, referral, staffing, finance, care provision and enablers to service provision were collected by telephone interview. Results Of 128 services invited, 70 (54.7%) provided data. Great diversity was found. Most services operated in mixed urban/rural (74.3%) and mixed deprivation (77.1%) areas and provided hands-on care (97.1%), symptom assessment and management (91.4%), psychosocial support (94.3%) and respite care (74.3%). Rapid response (within 4 hours) was available in 65.7%; hands-on care 24 hours a day in 52.2%. Charity donations were the main source of funding for 71.2%. Key enablers for service provision included working with local services (eg, district nursing, general practitioner services), integrated health records, funding and anticipatory care planning. Access to timely medication and equipment was critical. Conclusion There is considerable variation in HAH services in England. Due to this variation it was not possible to categorise services into delivery types. Services work to supplement local care using a flexible approach benefitting from integration and funding. Further work defining service features related to patient and/or carer outcomes would support future service development.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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(Preview, Version of record, 306.4KB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001818
Authors
- Publisher:
- BMJ Publishing Group
- Journal:
- BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care More from this journal
- Volume:
- 11
- Pages:
- 454-460
- Publication date:
- 2019-11-13
- Acceptance date:
- 2019-10-28
- DOI:
- ISSN:
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2045-435X
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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pubs:1069798
- UUID:
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uuid:369fd192-e206-4a5f-9dc0-5dc4f438197e
- Local pid:
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pubs:1069798
- Source identifiers:
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1069798
- Deposit date:
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2019-11-04
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Rees-Roberts et al
- Copyright date:
- 2021
- Rights statement:
- © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2021. Re-use permitted under CC BY. Published by BMJ. This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to copy, redistribute, remix, transform and build upon this work for any purpose, provided the original work is properly cited, a link to the licence is given, and indication of whether changes were made.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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