Halle Johnson, Research Projects & Coordination Assistant at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, writes about the outcome of a workshop that analysed the results of GUIDE_Care Services, a population-based study.
Earlier this year the Cicely Saunders Institute in London hosted a stakeholder workshop for the GUIDE_Care Services project, a national population-based study examining the role of health service factors in place of death in England. The project, funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), explored the role of services factors such as service provision, proximity, capacity, workforce, and utilisation on place of death.
The aim of the workshop was to bring together a range of stakeholders including clinicians, NHS managers, data providers, patient and public representatives, and academics to critically interpret preliminary findings from the project in regard to policy, practice, and future research.
The day began with a series of presentations from the project team at Cicely Saunders Institute including Professor Irene Higginson (Professor of Palliative Care and Policy), Dr Gao Wei (Reader in Statistics and Epidemiology), and Dr Emeka Chukwusa (Research Associate), sharing preliminary results from the project.
In the afternoon, attendees were invited to join a focus group session to discuss the usefulness, implications, and limitations of the findings in the context of policy, practice, and future research.
The participants found the research findings interesting, in particular those related to hospice capacity and service proximity. They acknowledged the need to further explore the role of social care services, and to consider additional measures of access to palliative and end-of-life care facilities other than geographical access.
Discussion also highlighted the importance of future research in this area, particularly the need to continue analysis as datasets are updated to compare and contrast trends over time, and to further consider the concept of ‘access to services’, specifically the drivers and factors that may impact on access.
The recommendations that were generated within the focus group sessions will be synthesised by researchers at the Cicely Saunders Institute to inform the GUIDE_Care Services final report, and will provide further direction for future research.
For further questions or to find out more contact King’s College London
This event was supported by a grant from the NIHR Health Services & Delivery Research.
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