End of life care

New research from King’s College London found that people living with dementia experience higher levels of unplanned hospital admissions towards the end of life compared with the period immediately following their dementia diagnosis. The study found that 40% of all unplanned hospital admissions after a diagnosis of dementia took place in the last year of life.

I’ve been reading a lot recently about the word Frailty and its importance within Medicine for Older People. We see a lot of frail people and as geriatricians they are our core business both inside and outside the hospital.

The newly formed End of Life Care Special Interest Group (SIG) is proud to launch our online compendium of guidance on End of life Care in Frailty.

It is a commonly accepted principle that demand for healthcare always outstrips resources, and so in the UK’s publicly funded health system, it is important to look at how and where costs are being incurred to make sure we are making the best use of limited resources.

We are in exceptional times, and people are providing care in extraordinary ways. On the 30th January 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) outbreak was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern.

Palliative care is relevant across the illness trajectory for people living and dying with chronic progressive conditions, aiming to improve quality of life and enable a peaceful death. With an ageing population, an increased proportion of older people will need to access care and support in a long term care facility.