#114 Better End of Life Report 2024. What we can learn about the current experience of end of life care in England and Wales with Professor Fliss Murtagh

In this episode it is my pleasure to catch up with Fliss Murtagh, Professor of Palliative Care at the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull. Fliss talks through the 2024 Better End of Life Report and, to be frank, it’s a hard listen. The gaps and inadequacy of care are identified,  with clear next steps for how we can and must do better.

OMi (OM Interactive), kindly supplied sponsorship to produce this episode.  OMi has had no influence in the creation, development or content of this podcast and full control remains the responsibility of Clare Fuller

Key messages

• Fliss explains the nationally representative survey that formed part of the research work. This is the first of such surveys conducted since COVID

• The report aimed to find out what was happening with the state of end of life care in England and Wales

• The experience and quality of care for people approaching the end of life was explored.

• We discuss the impact of hearing people’s voice and experience

• The last three months of life and week of life were explored in detail

• Shocking gaps in basic care was found

• Care was uncoordinated, fragmented and patchy

• People with cancer are still more likely to get specialist care than those who die from other conditions.

• There is a lack of basic end of life care available for people

• People less financially comfortable experienced a higher symptom burden

• Symptoms in the last week of life were not well managed

• The report suggests 1 in 4 people who were dying were not aware and about a third had not had a discussion with professionals

Resource

• Access the Marie Cure Better End of Life Report 2024 or via https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/policy/better-end-life-report

• Find out about  Professor Fliss Murtagh  Professor of Palliative Care 
  

Bio

Fliss is an NIHR Senior Investigator. She is a physician by background, having worked for almost 10 years as a General Practitioner, and approaching 20 years as a Palliative Medicine consultant. She now works as Professor of Palliative Care at Hull York Medical School at University of Hull, and Visiting Professor of Palliative Care at the Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, UK. Fliss leads the Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre at University of Hull, a group of about 40 researchers and one of the larger palliative care research groups in the UK.

She is experienced in providing palliative care to a wide range of people with far advanced disease and their families and has published extensively (Scopus-indexed publications 234, Scopus H-Index 49), on palliative and end-of-life care needs, especially for older people and those with advanced kidney disease. She is also experienced in research methods: cohort studies and cross-sectional surveys, psychometrics, implementation and use of outcomes, especially the Integrated Palliative care Outcome Scale (see www.pos-pal.org). Fliss’ publications are available at http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1289-3726