A new study found that the United Kingdom (UK) provides the best end of life care in the world.
The UK, along with other first world countries performed best in the 2015 Quality of Death Index, a test facilitated by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) that measured the quality of hospice care. Around 80 countries worldwide were tested.
As expected, majority of the high scorers in the study were the richer countries. Second to UK was Australia, followed by Australia, with Ireland, Belgium, Germany, Taiwan and the United States being among the top 10 best.
China, on the other hand, had the lowest score for quality hospice care. Other countries included in the bottom ten are Iraq, Guatemala, Iran, the Philippines and Nigeria.
The survey also reported that only 34 of the participating countries provided what can be considered as quality palliative care, providing only for roughly 15 percent of the world's adult population.
The scoring calculated based on healthcare facility setups, staffing, quality and affordability of care.
Simon Jones, Director of Policy and Public Affairs from Marie Curie, acknowledges UK's achievement but also worries about what the shortage of quality palliative care meant for the world.
"While we recognize the great work that makes the UK a world leader in palliative care, we know from our own research that each year around 110,000 people are missing out on care that they urgently need," Jones said. He added that while UK's hospice care rendering is good, the fact that one out of five people still die without getting good hospice care means that there is more room for needed improvement.
The study authors also highlighted the findings of the health service ombudsman regarding poor communication, symptom control, inadequate care delivery and other complaints regarding end-of-life care.
Annie Pannelay of the Healthcare department of the EIU acknowledged that there is still much to be done to improve healthcare delivery in the UK.
"There are some concerns but there is a plan to improve and the single fact that there is a parliamentary report on that and it's available publicly means a lot - that means the UK is working on it," Pannelay elaborated.
Especially in the face of an ageing population and chronic diseases like cancer and diabetes, adequate focus is needed to shift the world's healthcare system from acute care focused to chronic and palliative care focused.
"The biggest problem that persists is that our healthcare systems are designed to provide acute care when what we need is chronic care," said Dr. Stephen Connor from the Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance, "That's still the case almost everywhere in the world."
Photo: Ted Van Pelt|Flickr
