Findings of the National End of Life Survey | 2023
In total, 1,023 people were cared for at home during the last two days of their life, while 1,025 people died at home. This section presents ȴndings broken down both by where care was received in the last two days of life, and also by where people died. 70.0% of participants (673 of 962) said that their relative or friend was visited by a member of the hospice, palliative care team or other specialist palliative care service in the last two days of their life. 32.7% of participants (294 of 900), whose relative died at home, said that their relative or friend was told by a healthcare professional that they were likely to die; 53.8% (n=484) said that the person was not told and 122 (13.56%) said that they did not know. While 67.6% of bereaved relatives (607 of 898) indicated that healthcare sta talked to them about what to expect when their relative or friend was dying, 24.3% (n=218) said that healthcare sta did not talk to them about what to expect. 28 71.5% of participants (264 of 369) said that a discussion about what to expect when their relative was dying would have been helpful. Of 893 people, 882 (98.8%) felt that their relative died in the right place, while three (0.3%) thought that their relative did not die in the right place. 29 Figure 4.3 shows the average scores (out of 10) for questions on care provided at home in the last two days of life, compared to the national average 30 . The highest-scoring question related to kindness and compassion from healthcare sta, with 94.6% of bereaved relatives (742 of 784) saying that their relative or friend was always treated with kindness and compassion during the last two days of their life. The lowest-scoring question related to religious and spiritual needs, with 39.8% of people (159 of 399) saying that healthcare sta did not provide support to meet their relative or friend’s religious or spiritual needs during the last two days of their life. 31
28 73 respondents (8.1%) selected the response option ‘not applicable – they died unexpectedly’. 29 A further 8 respondents (0.9%) were not sure. 30 The national average relates to the score across all settings. 31 476 (54.4%) of respondents selected ‘they did not need help with this’.
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