Transforming palliative and end-of-life care

The issue

People are living for longer and many of them with long term health conditions. Leeds, the third largest city in the UK, has an ageing population of which the 65+ age group is projected to grow by over 15,000 (+13%) between 2016 and 2026.[1]

So, the need for excellent palliative and end-of-life care is also growing – a situation intensified by the pandemic. Not only has Covid-19 meant excess deaths but it has disproportionately affected older people, high risk communities, care homes and hospitals.

The pressure to also improve the efficiency of that care has increased as precious resources come under immense strain.

How we have helped

We have supported and linked Leeds Beckett University’s novel ‘whole systems approach’  with Leeds Palliative Care Network to enhance  transformation of care in Leeds.

Developed in Leeds, before being rolled out nationally, this approach originally focused on tackling childhood obesity. Its key features include engaging stakeholders across the system, building a shared understanding of the problem, creating aligned and cohesive actions and maintaining communication across the system.

Together, along with a wide range of around 100 other stakeholders, they are reviewing existing services to understand

• how to better coordinate and link the different care services
• how to enable high quality care at home if that is a person’s preference
• how to design services to provide care in ways that Leeds’ people say they need.

The impact

Partners will take the work forward as the results are now drawn together. Part of that will be a detailed approach looking at how the system works in a particular area of the city for a specific group of people.

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[1] https://observatory.leeds.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/Leeds-JSA-2018-Summary-Report.pdf

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