New approach to end of life care

An audit on the provision of care for people dying in hospitals found significant variations in care across hospitals in England. The National Care of the Dying Audit for Hospitals¹ was led by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in collaboration with the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute Liverpool (MCPCIL), and funded by Marie Curie Cancer Care and Public Health England. The audit results (published in May 2014), showed that major improvements need to be made to ensure better care for dying people, as well as better support for families and carers.

While previous audits had been based on the goals of care within the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient (LCP), the new audit sampled the care of dying people in hospital, regardless of whether they were supported by the LCP or other care pathways or frameworks, and included more hospitals than the previous audits. The new audit assessed:

• The quality of care received directly by 6580 people who died in 149 hospitals in England between 1 May and 31 May 2013. This was done by reviewing the case notes of a sample of patients and is not the total number of people who died in hospital during this time.