Palliative care strategy - service mapping survey: main findings report
Our clinical advisory and working groups undertook four complementary surveys to determine how general and specialist palliative care services at a Health Board level are addressing the needs of adults, children, their families and carers. This report covers the main findings from all four surveys.
2. Interpretation notes
Responses provided a snapshot of service provision[2] and did not include any developments following this. The time period covered by the data was impacted by ongoing recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and this was noted by respondents.
All four surveys explored a complex, interrelated system and direct comparisons between areas and services are not always possible, with variation to be expected. Within each of the surveys, missing data means that statistical findings are not representative nationally and returns are affected by self-selection bias. The Health Board survey had the fewest respondents (Annex A).
The introductory information for each survey gave a definition of general (non-specialist) palliative care and specialist palliative care services but beyond this interpretation of terms may have varied.[3]
Surveys were analysed by representatives of the working groups and relevant Scottish Government colleagues. Grouping of services was pragmatic and sense checked against practitioners’ knowledge of services. Online meetings were held with respondents to discuss different uses of terminology, validate the results and their interpretation, and inform this report.
Contact
Email: Palliativecareteam@gov.scot
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