Specialist Palliative Care triumphs, challenges and improvement opportunities revealed

The Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre has today published the results of the first ever in-depth evaluation of an established weekend and bank holiday Specialist Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist Service in the UK. Read the Executive Summary or download the Full Report.

Funded through the End of Life Board for Wales and commissioned by Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, the evaluation report highlights the key differences between their weekday and weekend/bank holiday service, and describes the service triumphs, challenges and improvement opportunities.

The report recommendations are already influencing discussions on future practice models within the service and the wider out of hours health and care infrastructure. It is hoped the learning from the evaluation will support widespread impact in services across the UK, to include a self-assessment template for use by similar services to evaluate current practice.