The Health and Social Care Committee’s evaluation of palliative care in England was published yesterday.

It’s hugely important, not least in the context of the assisted dying bill.

It’s had almost no media coverage.

committees.parliament.uk/publications...

🧵/ Today a damning parliamentary report on the state of palliative care services in England was published.

Services are patchy, underfunded & “ill-equipped” to address end-of-life needs.

Bereavement support is “frequently inaccessible.

The palliative care workforce is in a “critical” situation”.

Our report for the UK Covid Inquiry on palliative and end of life care during the pandemic has been published.

We include 15 recommendations to strengthen palliative and end of life care so it is fit for the future, including future pandemics.

covid19.public-inquiry.uk/documents/in...

Telling our birth & death stories matters.
It helps us understand what happened.
It enables others to know more.
It normalises these important life events.
It moves emotionally profound experiences to the safe storage of autobiographical memory.
We can help by listening.
@virtualhospice.bsky.social

Ministers urged to guarantee NHS jobs for new midwives amid understaffing Student midwives working thousands of hours unpaid in NHS fear lack of vacancies despite staff shortages A student midwife who fears she will be unable to get a job after completing 2,300 hours of unpaid placement work in the NHS is calling for guaranteed posts for newly qualified midwives who otherwise will be forced to abandon the profession before their careers begin. Aimee Peach, 43, is due to complete her training next summer, but says the promise of a job at the end of her three-year degree course has “collapsed”, despite severe shortages of midwives across the country. Continue reading...

Ministers urged to guarantee NHS jobs for new midwives amid understaffing

📣 New #OpenAccess paper:

“Bereavement Training in the Workplace, Can it Help Bridge the Grief Support Gap? A Qualitative Evaluation of Employers’ and Employees’ Views”

journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Supported by @arcnenc.bsky.social

#Bereavement #Qualitative #Research #PalliativeCare

Great thought provoking Q&A session …. highlighting that we can write reports to policy makers telling them again & again that #Inequities persist- but we need to be proposing potential *solutions*

+ if policies are implemented we can’t assume that they will work, they need evaluating
#EAPC2025

Followed by Dr Sarah Mitchell describing the complex policy landscape and opportunities for researchers to influence policy making at different healthcare system levels.

Very relevant to my work on tackling #Inequalities in #PalliativeCare

#EAPC2025 Day 3

“Policy makers are not going to be knocking at our door looking for evidence”

@katherinesleeman.bsky.social on bridging the evidence-policy gap and the 3Ps:
⭐️ Perspective
⭐️ People
⭐️ Perseverance

With examples of evidence-informed policy making

An area I need to learn more about…. #EAPC2025 Day 3

Very happy that our final paper from the OPTIMAL-Care study is out in BMC Medicine!

This multi-method study, brilliantly led by Matthew Allsop, examines the optimal development, implementation & evaluation of digital advance care plans (EPaCCS).

bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

One certainty on assisted dying: this is an awful way to introduce it A private member’s bill is not the right mechanism for such a difficult issue and MPs risk creating a process that does as much to cause pain as to prevent it

One certainty on assisted dying: this is an awful way to introduce it

www.thetimes.com/article/2693...

Confronting global inequities in palliative care The number of people dying with preventable, serious health-related suffering is rapidly increasing, and international calls for the expansion of palliative care services have been made, such as the W...

Globally, only 14% of people who need palliative care actually receive it. A decade after the WHA Resolution, what progress had been made?

New paper in BMJ Global Health: Confronting global inequities in palliative care

gh.bmj.com/content/10/5...

Community nurses based in the UK? Please help us evidence how much of your work involves end of life care.

Take part in our 10-min max survey study here:
cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

@theqicn.bsky.social @crystaloldman.bsky.social @johnunsworth10.bsky.social @rosyroo.bsky.social

Public misunderstanding, myths, and misinformation can hamper good end-of-life care.

We need a better conversation to help support better deaths and overcome barriers, whether or not there’s a change in the law on assisted dying, @mancunianmedic.bsky.social
www.bmj.com/content/389/...

A fabulous Friday!

Thank you @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social for insightful, thoughtful & honest conversations, plus adding your wise words to our hospice wisdom tree 🌲

Also a big thank you to @jedjerwood.bsky.social & @sharonhudson.bsky.social

#palliativecare #hospice #DyingMattersAwarenessWeek

Read Sean’s blog here: qicn.org.uk/51302-2

Community nurses - how much of your work involves end of life care? Does any of this work have to go deferred?

Please help with our short anonymous survey
& share widely with colleagues 🙂

Take part here:
cambridge.eu.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_...

@crystaloldman.bsky.social @theqicn.bsky.social

Huge congratulations Gemma 🎉

Dying for Beginners: An Interview with Kathryn Mannix - Good Grief IN PERSON at 11 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TB Dying is a bodily process, like pregnancy and birth. Yet, we often find it hard to discuss. In this special lunchtime session at the University of Brist...

The Grief Centre will deliver its first in-person public engagement event during Dying Matters Awareness Week (5-11 May): Dying for Beginners: An interview with @drkathrynmannix.bsky.social on Friday 9 May 2025 from 12-1pm at 11 Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1TB.

Register to attend: bit.ly/4jFZi7i

The building blocks to quality improvement that form the roots of most projects.

While the tools and techniques on top of them may vary depending on the context, these foundational elements are essential to successful and sustainable improvement:

#AprilFools

Of course our daffodil isn’t going anywhere, but palliative and end of life care is a prickly subject right now. Services are overstretched, underfunded and overlooked.

Visit: campaigns.mariecurie.org.uk/page/163063/... to see how you can support.

Key actions for public partnership

❤️Step back from the hamster wheel, connect and see hope
❤️Don't forget you a part of your own community- share your gifts
❤️Put a pin in the map for your service and search your community around them- engage, hear get involved
❤️Be PROUDLY PALLIATIVE

#PCC2025

‘A form doesn’t help you think’

@tuffrey-wijne.com & Amanda

#pcc2025
Let’s talk about funerals www.victoriaandstuart.com

@roisincomms.bsky.social

Dr Kerrie Noonan @keznoo.bsky.social

Urges us not to event plan and invite people in but instead actively show up within existing community, see and value the strengths, be curious and I would add be humble

#PCC2025

#DeathLiteracy

Palliative Care PSA - We’re the fire department, not the fire. YouTube video by Jared Rubenstein

The awesome @drjrubenstein.bsky.social discusses the need to improve health care workers understanding of Palliative Care - without that public involvement hits a dead end

His animations give voice to the behaviours and fear and around Palliative Care #PCC2025

youtu.be/BbNi_-wYXJE?...

Dr Kirsty Boyd challenges us in the assumption that care at home is preferred or right and we should look at the reality of this in our planning and decision making #PCC2025

Dr Kirsty Boyd talks to us about 'Care for People who are Dying' instead of End of Life Care for people with multiple needs. Noting the increase in cause of death not just in dementia but renal and heart disease #PCC2025

Palliative Care Research Conference Our Palliative Care Research Conference aims to support researchers and practitioners to establish research opportunities in their hospice.

I’m presenting at the Dorothy House Palliative Care Research Conference on 5 June, discussing the timely, effective and safe use of injectable end-of-life medications. Bringing together our brand new research for the first time!

Tickets can be purchased via:
www.dorothyhouse.org.uk/palliative-c...

Drs Rachel Clarke & Olena Parichuk standing in front of the Hospice Ukraine Land Rover

If you are reeling from Trump & Vance's disgusting performance towards Zelensky last night, might you consider donating to www.hospiceukraine.com, the tiny charity I set up with Henry Marsh to support local Ukrainian palliative care teams?

We delivered this Land Rover to a rural hospice in Dec...