Cost effectiveness of specialist palliative care

Health

Palliative care is an approach that aims to enhance the quality of life for individuals with serious illnesses and their families. Specialist palliative care teams, comprising doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals, help manage pain and symptoms, provide information about treatment options, and address emotional and spiritual needs.
In England, these teams mainly work in hospitals and in people’s homes. However, not everyone who could benefit from specialist palliative care receives it because there are not enough teams to meet the increasing demand.
While research shows that palliative care improves patient outcomes, no studies have looked at whether these teams provide good value for money for the NHS. Understanding the cost-effectiveness of specialist palliative care can help policymakers decide where and how to expand access to these teams.

We will evaluate specialist palliative care in hospitals and at home separately, using a method called cost-effectiveness analysis. This means we will look at how these teams impact patients' quality of life and healthcare costs.
By combining the results, we aim to inform policymakers not only about how care improves outcomes, but also whether the extra investment provides good value for money and whether the teams help save money in other areas, such as reducing hospital stays.

This research will use data from previous studies and combine them to create new evidence.
We will look at information about the quality of life of people with palliative care needs in hospitals, at home, in care homes, and in hospices. We will also use NHS statistics to estimate how long people stay in each of these settings and the associated costs from the perspective of the health system. Census data will help us understand what proportion of people die in each place.
We will review previous research to find the best measure of how much palliative care improves quality of life and affects the chances of dying in hospital.
By combining these data sources, we will estimate the costs and quality of life for patients with and without palliative care, and determine whether this care provides good value for patients, families, and the NHS.

This research will be the first to examine the cost-effectiveness of specialist palliative care in England.
It will help policymakers understand whether the current services provide good value for money and will lay the groundwork for future research on how to meet the growing need for palliative care.

Project status: Ongoing