Hospices in England have been playing an important role in end-of-life care of Britons specifically those suffering from cancer, but a new study has revealed that the demographics of deaths in hospices is changing in the UK with more and more people are dying at older ages from chronic conditions with long periods of decline, a new study has found.
According to a study funded by the National Institute for Health Research HS&DR Programme through the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC) and published in the journal Palliative Medicine the proportion of people dying in hospices in England has nearly doubled since 1993. Further, the gap hospice deaths between people living in the least and most deprived areas also appears to be growing.
For the research, researchers examined all hospice deaths in England over the course of last 20-years including almost 450,000 deaths from 1993-2012. In the study researchers investigated how trends in hospice deaths have changed over time, while also examining the relationship between dying in a hospice and factors such as age, diagnosis and socio-economic position.
According to statistics half of all admissions to hospices in England are for end-of-life care, with the remainder being for symptom control or respite.
The latest study found a steady increase in the annual number of hospice deaths from 17,400 in 1993 to 26,000 in 2012. This accounted for 3.4 per cent of all deaths in England in 1993, and 6.0 per cent in 2012.
Most of those who died were married (55 per cent) or widowed (26 per cent), half were men, and the average age of death was 70. The vast majority died from cancer, with just 5 per cent of all deaths occurring in people with non-cancer diagnoses, although this proportion increased from 3.9 per cent to 7.7 per cent over the study period.
The study also found that people who died in hospice were more likely to be resident in affluent than deprived areas, and that this gap grew by 25 per cent over the study period.
Dr Katherine Sleeman, first author from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London, says:
“The annual number of UK deaths is predicted to rise, and policy makers and practitioners need to consider whether the current models of hospice care are best suited to the changing needs of an ageing society.
“It is concerning that trends suggest that when it comes to death in hospice, the gap between rich and poor is increasing. We must ensure that access to specialist hospice care is available to everyone.”
