Palliative Care - Data
What you told us
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What the data tells us
Palliative care is the care, treatment and support someone receives when they have a life limiting illness. It aims to improve the quality of life of patients and their families, through the prevention and relief of suffering and can involve hospitals, hospices, GP practices and community teams.
504 people were registered with their GP as being in receipt of palliative care (Midlothian GP Internal Data. Palliative Care Register, 2019).
51 people were in receipt of specialist palliative nursing care from Marie Curie (Marie Curie Internal Data, 2019).
Patients and carers express their preference to be cared for in the place where they live, for as long as possible. Where possible, many would also prefer to die in their place of residence (NHS Lothian). There is no national and systematic data recorded on a person’s preferred place of care at end of life and so the percentage of last six months spent at home or in a community setting is measured.
The average percentage of the last 6 months of life spent at home or in a community setting has increased, rising from 86.4% in 2013/14 to 89.8% in 2021/22 in Scotland, and from 84.8% to 88.2% in Midlothian for the same period.
The increase from 2013/14 to 2021/2219 roughly equals an extra 6 days on average spent at home or in a community setting. The difference between Midlothian and the Scottish average was around 3 days in 2021/22.
- Inequality - the percentage of the last six months of life spent at home or in a community setting for those living in the most deprived areas is the same as those living in the least deprived areas (Scottish level data).
Page updated October 2024