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Adult nursing
Does an enhanced 7 day specialist palliative care service make a difference for people with life limiting illness?
  1. Sarah J F Russell
  1. Hospital Palliative and End of Life Care Team, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, Portsmouth, UK
  1. Correspondence to Sarah J F Russell, Hospital Palliative Care Team, Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust, Portsmouth, PO6 3LY, UK; Sarah.Russell{at}porthosp.nhs.uk

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Commentary on: Walshe C, Mateus C, Varey S, Dodd S, Cockshott Z, Filipe L, Brearley SG. 'Thank goodness you're here'. Exploring the impact on patients, family carers and staff of enhanced 7-day specialist palliative care services: A mixed methods study. Palliat Med. 2023 Dec;37(10):1484-1497. doi: 10.1177/02692163231201486. Epub 2023 Sep 21.

Implications for practice and research

  • Enhanced 7 day specialist palliative care services improve the quality of life for patients and family carers as well as decrease healthcare utilisation and costs.

  • Further studies are required to identify the most effective enhanced 7 day services including the impact of senior nurse roles.

Context

There is evidence that those with a life limiting illness disproportionally use ‘out of hours’ (overnight or weekends) services including emergency departments and hospital admissions.1 Studies show the benefit of specialist palliative care services (SPCS) in reducing the use of health services, costs and improving quality of life for patients and …

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Footnotes

  • Twitter @LearnPEOLC

  • Competing interests SJFR is an associate Editor for Evidence Based Nursing.

  • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.