Findings of the National End of Life Survey | 2023
In addition, participants were most likely to say they always felt welcome to visit their relative or friend in a hospice at any time in the last three months (95%), compared with a nursing home (81%) or a hospital (58%). When asked about visiting hospitals and other healthcare settings in the last two days of their relative or friend’s life, most participants said they were given the option to visit at any time, including outside of regular visiting hours. Two survey questions asked about coordination in the last months and days of life. Question 64 asked participants if they felt there was good coordination between the dierent services and sta that cared for their relative or friend in the last three months of their life. In total, 1,699 participants (45%) answered that there ‘deȴnitely’ was good coordination between the services and sta. Question 76 asked if there was good coordination between healthcare sta in the last two days, with 3,007 participants (74%) saying that there was ‘deȴnitely’ good coordination. The survey included nine questions that asked about the care and support provided to participants themselves. The highest-scoring question in this section related to sensitivity from healthcare sta, with 84% of participants saying that healthcare sta always engaged with them in a sensitive manner after their relative or friend died. The lowest-scoring question related to support to talk to children or young adults, with 29% of participants saying that healthcare sta did not provide enough help and support to talk to children or young adults about their relative or friend’s illness. 56 In conclusion, participants in the ȴrst National End of Life Survey highlighted some areas of good care, as well as areas requiring improvement. Most participants always had conȴdence and trust in healthcare sta and felt that their relative or friend was always treated with respect and dignity and kindness and compassion. However, some participants said that their relative or friend’s care was not as well coordinated as it should have been, and that they did not always receive help from healthcare sta as soon as they needed it. Of the settings covered in the survey, hospitals were the most common place of death. Hospices received the most positive ratings across all survey questions. What happens next? The HSE will use the survey ȴndings to inform the development of quality improvement plans at national and local levels. These quality improvement plans will describe the steps that the HSE will take to address the issues highlighted by participants in the survey. Quality improvement plans will be available on www.yourexperience.ie in April 2024. Private and voluntary end-of-life care providers can use the survey results to develop plans on how they will respond to the ȴndings. The National Care Experience Programme is engaging with organisations that represent private and voluntary providers to support them to understand and use the ȴndings of the survey. The Department of Health will use the information gathered to inform the development of policy in relation to end-of-life care. Finally, the ȴndings of the survey will inform national standards and HIQA’s monitoring and regulation of the services included in this survey.
56 It is important to note that 56% of respondents (2,412) to this question said that they did not need help with this, or they did not have anyway contact with healthcare sta.
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