A description and comparison of palliative care services in the United Kingdom and Czech Republic

2009 ◽  
Vol 15 (9) ◽  
pp. 422-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katerina Švecová
Author(s):  
Ros Scott

This chapter explores the history of volunteers in the founding and development of United Kingdom (UK) hospice services. It considers the changing role and influences of volunteering on services at different stages of development. Evidence suggests that voluntary sector hospice and palliative care services are dependent on volunteers for the range and quality of services delivered. Within such services, volunteer trustees carry significant responsibility for the strategic direction of the organiszation. Others are engaged in diverse roles ranging from the direct support of patient and families to public education and fundraising. The scope of these different roles is explored before considering the range of management models and approaches to training. This chapter also considers the direct and indirect impact on volunteering of changing palliative care, societal, political, and legislative contexts. It concludes by exploring how and why the sector is changing in the UK and considering the growing autonomy of volunteers within the sector.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Felicity Hasson ◽  
Paul Slater ◽  
Anne Fee ◽  
Tracey McConnell ◽  
Sheila Payne ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundGlobally COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the provision of healthcare, including palliative care. However, there is little evidence about the impact of COVID-19 on delivery of out-of-hours specialist palliative care services in the United Kingdom. The aim of the study is to investigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the delivery of out-of-hours community-based palliative care services.Methods A national online census survey of managers of adult hospices in the United Kingdom was undertaken. Survey were emailed to managers of adult hospices (n=150) who provided out-of-hours community palliative care services. Fifteen questions related specifically to the impact of COVID-19 and data were analysed thematically.ResultsEighty-one responses to the survey were returned (54% response rate); 59 were complete of which 47 contained COVID-19 data. Findings indicated that COVID-19 impacted on out-of-hours community-based palliative care. To meet increased patient need, hospices reconfigured services; redeployed staff; and introduced new policies and procedures to minimize virus transmission. Lack of integration between charitably and state funded palliative care providers was reported. The interconnected issues of the use and availability of Personal Protective Equipment (n=21) and infection control screening (n=12) resulted in changes in nursing practices due to fear of contagion for patients, carers and staff. Conclusions Survey findings suggest that due to increased demand for community palliative care services, hospices had to rapidly adapt and reconfigure services. Even though this response to the pandemic led to some service improvements, in the main, out-of-hours service reconfiguration resulted in challenges for hospices, including workforce issues, and availability of resources such as Personal Protective Equipment. These challenges were exacerbated by lack of integration with wider healthcare services. More research is required to fully understand the implications of such changes on the quality of care provided.


Author(s):  
Ros Scott

This chapter explores the experience of volunteers in hospice and palliative care their own words. Frequently we hear about the work of volunteers from paid staff, from research, but not always from the volunteers themselves in their own words. In this chapter we have tried to explore what happens in the unique place that volunteers have within hospice and palliative care services; somewhere between staff, patients, and families. The stories in this chapter have all come directly from volunteers from Italy, Australia, Romania, India, United States of America (USA), and the United Kingdom (UK) in their own words. Translation, where required, has tried to remain true to the original story and all volunteers have agreed the translation to ensure that it has not changed the essence of the story. Volunteers have described their roles, what volunteering means to them, and the impact that it has on their lives.


Author(s):  
Sheila Payne ◽  
Sara Morris

Evidence suggests that in the past support services for patients and family carers of terminally ill people have often been unavailable or inadequate in addressing their needs. This chapter will briefly summarize the context of hospice and palliative care services. The chapter argues that definitions of palliative care are culturally and temporally dependent, exemplified by the changing terminology used in the United Kingdom. One of the challenges facing service deliverers is the necessity to work collaboratively across health and social care services, and statutory and voluntary sector organizational boundaries. The funding and organizational positioning of hospice and palliative care services are often contingent upon health care systems and resources. All roles require careful recruitment, dedicated training, and consistent support to provide effective contributions from volunteers. The chapter ends by providing a short description of three studies investigating the role of volunteers undertaken in the United Kingdom.


Author(s):  
Sheila Payne ◽  
Tom Lynch

This chapter provides an overview of the development of palliative medicine as a specialized discipline, and seeks to trace the development of international initiatives that have promoted and facilitated the growth of palliative care services. The focus is on palliative care services for adults with life-limiting conditions and advanced disease. A chronological narrative is traced from the first hospices developed in Dublin, Ireland, to the emergence of the modern hospices in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. The global spread of the principles of palliative care is traced in the formation of national and regional organizations. The chapter offers evidence on the progress of educational initiatives, both within medicine and for other members of the multidisciplinary team, at undergraduate and post-qualification level. The proposal for ten core common interdisciplinary competencies defines the essential foundations of palliative care. Finally, the chapter considers what areas of palliative medicine require further development.


2021 ◽  
pp. 026921632110493
Author(s):  
Sarah Mitchell ◽  
Madeleine Harrison ◽  
Phillip Oliver ◽  
Clare Gardiner ◽  
Helen Chapman ◽  
...  

Background: Primary healthcare teams (general practice and community nursing services) within the United Kingdom provided the majority of community end-of-life care during COVID-19, alongside specialist palliative care services. As international healthcare systems move to a period of restoration following the first phases of the pandemic, the impact of rapidly-implemented service changes and innovations across primary and specialist palliative care services must be understood. Aim: To provide detailed insights and understanding into service changes and innovation that occurred in UK primary care to deliver end-of-life care during the first phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. Design: Cross-sectional online survey. Responses were analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis. Setting/participants: United Kingdom survey of general practitioners and community nurses, circulated via regional and national professional networks. Results: A total of 559 valid responses were received from 387 community nurses, 156 general practitioners and 16 ‘other’. Over a third of respondents ( n = 224; 40.8%) experienced changes in the organisation of their team in order to provide end-of-life care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three qualitative themes were identified: COVID-19 as a catalyst for change in primary palliative care; new opportunities for more responsive and technological ways of working; and pandemic factors that improved and strengthened interprofessional collaboration. Conclusion: Opportunity has arisen to incorporate cross-boundary service changes and innovations, implemented rapidly at the time of crisis, into future service delivery. Future research should focus on which service changes and innovations provide the most benefits, who for and how, within the context of increased patient need and complexity.


Author(s):  
Matthew Hotopf

Depression in palliative care is common, under-recognised and has significant impacts for sufferers. There are effective treatments but often a shortage of staff to provide them. This chapter sets out a number of key issues to consider when assessing and treating individual patients and considers the way in which palliative care services can innovate to provide a population level response to depression. Palliative care staff can be trained to deliver basic depression care and follow simple protocols to initiate, monitor and adjust antidepressant treatment. These approaches have been tested in trials in cancer care but the challenge is to take these approaches from research trials conducted in centres of excellence with good resources, to other settings.


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