End of life care for adults: service delivery

Recommendation ID: NG142/1
Question: Does early review of service provision and referral to additional specialist palliative care services improve outcomes for adults with progressive non-cancer disease thought to be approaching the end of their life?
Any explanatory notes (if applicable): There is a body of research into the optimal timing of referral to specialist palliative care in cancer patients, which generally points to earlier referral leading to better patient-reported outcomes. The committee noted that similar evidence is very limited for patients with a non-cancer diagnosis, for example in patients with progressive organ failure, such as advanced heart failure, or patients with life-limiting neurological disease, such as motor neurone disease or dementia. Such patients are typically referred very late to specialist palliative care, if at all. Further research would compare outcomes for people having a combination of early identification and specialist palliative care input with those for people having usual care.

Source guidance details

Is this a recommendation for the use of a technology only in the context of research?	No
Is it a recommendation that suggests collection of data or the establishment of a register?	No
Last Reviewed	31/10/2019