NICE has published a new draft quality standard for adult end-of-life services. It describes high-quality care in priority areas for improvement. It does not cover care during the last few days of life, which is covered by NICE’s quality standard on care of dying adults in the last days of life.
This quality standard updates the existing standard which was published in November 2011. The quality statements are:
Statement 1: Adults who are likely to be approaching the end of life are identified using locally developed systems. [2011, updated 2021].
Statement 2: Adults approaching the end of life have opportunities to discuss advance care planning. [new 2021].
Statement 3: Carers providing end-of-life care to people at home are supported to access local services that can provide assistance. [new 2021].
Statement 4: Adults approaching the end of life receive care that is coordinated between health and social care practitioners within and across different services and organisations. [2011, updated 2021].
Statement 5: Adults approaching the end of their life have access to support 24 hours a day, seven days a week. [2011, updated 2021].
The draft guidance is now open for consultation and NICE is asking particularly for comments on a number of areas, including:
- Does the draft accurately reflect the key areas for quality improvement?
- Are local systems and structures in place to collect data for the proposed quality measures? If not, how feasible would it be for these to be put in place?
- Do you think each of the statements above would be achievable by local services given the net resources needed to deliver them?
- Do you think end-of-life care service delivery (excluding the last days of life) has substantially changed during the COVID-19 pandemic? Can you describe any positive changes?
- For draft statement 4, is there a specific aspect of coordination of care that this quality statement should focus on?
This quality standard updates the existing quality standard which was published in November 2011. This draft quality standard is open for public comment until December 9, 2020. Comments can be submitted here.
