What do we know about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on hospices? A collaborative multi-stakeholder knowledge synthesis

John MacArtney; Abi Eccles; Joanna Fleming; Catherine Grimley; Jeremy Dale; Kathryn Almack; Catriona Mayland; Sarah Mitchell; Ruth Driscoll; Rebecca Hammond; Lynn Tatnell; Lesley Roberts

doi:10.12688/amrcopenres.13023.1

What do we know about the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on hospices? A collaborative multi-stakeholder knowledge synthesis

AMRC Open Res. 2021 Oct 6:3:23. doi: 10.12688/amrcopenres.13023.1. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Unit of Academic Primary Care, University of Warwick, Coventry, Warwickshire, CV4 7AL, UK.
² Communities, Young People and Family Lives, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, AL10 9AB, UK.
³ Department of Oncology and Metabolism, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, Yorkshire, S10 2TN, UK.
⁴ Policy and Public Affairs (England), Marie Curie Cancer Care, London, London, SE1 7TP, UK.
⁵ Patient and Public Involvement Representative, NA, UK.

Abstract

Background: Prior to undertaking a study looking at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic upon lived experiences of hospice services in the West Midlands, we sought to identify the range of issues that hospice service users and providers faced between March 2020 and July 2021, and to provide a report that can be accessed and understood by all interested stakeholders.

Methods: We undertook a collaborative multi-stakeholder approach for scoping the range of potential issues and synthesising knowledge. This involved a review of available literature; a focus group with hospice stakeholders; and a collaborative knowledge exchange panel.

Results: The literature on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on hospices remains limited, but it is developing a picture of a service that has had to rapidly adapt the way it provides care and support to its service users, during a period when it faced many fundamental challenges to established ways of providing these services.

Results: The impacts of many of the changes on hospices have not been fully assessed. It is also not known what the effects upon the quality of care and support are for those with life-limiting conditions and those that care for them. We found that the pandemic has presented a new normative and service context in which quality of care and life itself was valued that is, as yet, poorly understood.

Keywords: Covid-19; hospices; knowledge synsthesis; palliative care; pandemic.

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) (ES/W001837/1). Marie Curie staff were acting as consultants, with their time funded by the ESRC grant.