Palliative and end-of-life care in primary care during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with the highest death rate in the UK for over 10 years. There has been a marked shift of place of death into the community across the UK between March 2020 and 2021. Deaths at home increased by 67% during the first wave of the pandemic. There was a sustained increase of 33% above expected between the first two waves, and 43% above expected in the second wave.1 Nationally reported data identifies large changes in where people are dying, but little is understood about the circumstances of these deaths, the quality of end-of-life care in the community during the pandemic, or the services received.