Specialist care for terminally ill people

Every year in Wales about 32,000 people die, many of them from conditions that cannot be ‘cured’ but which do need some sort of specialist care to manage symptoms such as pain or dehydration.

Our research with Marie Curie Wales looked at the data collected by the NHS (nia NWIS) on the health care received by all people in their last 12 months of life.  The data provide a unique insight into the care received, including:

• number of bed nights
• number of emergency hospital admissions
• number of elective emergency admissions

The project was able to analyse these key figures by primary cause of death, as well as by some patient characteristics including age, gender and place of residence.

The report on the first phase of the project was published in December 2014. The report on the second phase will be published in June 2015.