Ending well in Staffordshire
Key Issues: End of life care
People approaching the last phase of life experience a range of physical and emotional symptoms. To manage these issues effectively requires integrated and multidisciplinary working between teams and across sectors regardless of whether the person is in their home, in hospital, a care home, or hospice.
Key headlines:
- Older people now spend more time in poor health before they die, with Staffordshire’s growing older population projected to rise in the next 10 years.
- End of life care is a key issue for Staffordshire; around 2 in 5 deaths occurred at home and 19% occurred in care homes. This continues to be worse than national for the last five years.
- Higher than average deaths in hospital also mirror increasing trends in hospital admissions seen elsewhere in the system.
- Planning for the end of life is therefore increasingly important for individuals, their families, carers and the health & care services that support them.
Data update
Although good end of life care is about getting it right at the end of life for people in Staffordshire, it is also about the families, friends and carers of people at end of life, who also experience a range of challenges and will have their own specific needs which must be addressed before, during and after the person’s death. Across Staffordshire, only 2 in 5 people die at home, with the majority of people dying in hospital. Providing the right end of life care is therefore a key issue.
Deaths occurring at home
- End of life care is a key issue for Staffordshire with performance worse than national.
- Around 2 in 5 are dying at home – worse than national for the latest 5 years. Stafford has the 7th worst in the country for dying at home.
- Deaths in care homes (all ages) is the lowest of similar authorities and worse than national for the latest 5 years - 19.5% compared to 22.5% in England (2019).
- Staffordshire is second highest of similar authorities and worse than national for deaths in hospital - 49% compared to 44.9% in England (2019). This links to trends seen elsewhere, with increasing admissions across a range of issues.
