Palliative Care Essay: Relief, Quality Of Life, And Planning For Good Death.

Overview of Palliative Care for Terminally Ill Patients

Research Title: Palliative care in the UK for persons living with terminal conditions

Palliative care is nothing else but medical care specialized for people who are suffering from some serious illness (Kelley, and Morrison, 2015). It is also required to mention here that, this medical care is particularly aimed towards offering an optimized quality of life along with mitigating the sufferings of complex and serious illnesses among concerned patients (Mercadante, Gregoretti, and Cortegiani, 2018). More precisely, the patients which are facing serious or complex illnesses are eventually trapped into issues related to stress also. Moreover, this also leads to stress or problems among their loved ones, especially the family. Thus, offering such patients as well as their families with palliative care eventually helps them to overcome the stress they are facing and eventually provides them an optimized quality of life.

In simpler words, people who are suffering from some serious or complex illness, are into a condition that is very problematic and depressive and hence it requires specialized care for them to at least have a positive mind about their health and wellbeing, to fight with the diseases, they are facing (Levy, et al., 2016). This kind of care is termed palliative care and providing this care to such patients can eventually help them to mitigate the suffering of the disease as well as to enjoy an optimized quality of life. It is also required to mention here that palliative care is generally provided to terminally ill patients. Terminally ill is a medical term that is precisely used for patients who are facing diseases that cannot be cured as well as will eventually lead them towards death. Generally, in such cases, doctors predict the life expectancy of the patients in the range of months and years (Schenker, and Arnold, 2015). However, these patients don’t need to be going to die, as often there are chances where under such specialized care people get well and live longer than expected. Moreover, it is also possible in some cases where people get better with time and achieve a situation where they no longer need palliative care.  Furthermore, this paper is a research paper or research report that is focused on palliative care in the UK specifically for terminally ill patients. It is also required to mention here that the major question for this research report is about the facts that how does palliative care support terminally ill patients to plan a good death?

This research report aims to study or acknowledge the nuances regarding palliative care, according which doctors offer an optimized quality of life to terminally ill patients to help them in planning a good death.

• To focus on how does palliative care helps terminally conditioned patients.
• To describe the factors or details of palliative care which eventually helps the patients facing terminal conditions.
• To acknowledge the facts regarding palliative care which offers good quality of life to patients having terminal conditions.
• To acknowledge the certain action or action plans that were introduced as a help amid the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic to enhance the effectiveness of the palliative care system in the UK.

• How effectively do palliative care services support persons with terminal conditions in planning a good death?
• What are the major aspects that are particularly designed or implemented to offer an optimized quality of life for terminally ill patients?
• What kind of action plan was introduced as a help amid the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic to enhance the effectiveness of the palliative care system in the UK?

It is a very common thing to witness several older people who some way or the other are living a life full of stress depression and mental issues. The reason is that patients face such issues because they have been fighting with some serious or complex diseases. Thus, after studying or researching about the same, the researcher eventually came up with specialized care named palliative care. Thus, it was observed as something intriguing because palliative care is particularly aimed to help terminally ill patients.  Moreover, by studying about the same, it was realized how significantly it is needed for the researchers to research about the same and spread a required awareness about how it helps the terminally ill patients in achieving required quality of life. Besides this, it is already obvious to take this topic as a major concern, as it is important to help the people with a terminal illness, to help the patients as well as their family to come out of the stress they have been facing and eventually enjoy an optimized quality of life. Thus, it is required for the researcher here, to conduct proper research over the same, to acknowledge all of the significant factors and aspects.

Importance of Palliative Care

Palliative care is specialized care, but also it is very common out there, as people suffering from chronic or complex diseases (Meier, et al., 2017). According to Knaul (2018), in most parts of the world, palliative care is still considered as something non-existent or inadequate. However, as stated by The Lancet Commission, around 61 million people every year face sufferings or issues that could eventually be ameliorated by PC or palliative care (Knaul, et al., 2018). Besides that, it was also estimated by them, that around 81% of the people who have been suffering from such issues are not able to have access to even basic interventions related to palliative care such as pain medication (Hawley, 2017). While looking at Palliative care as a whole, it could be defined as something which eventually assists the people facing issues like chronic diseases or is terminally ill, in providing the physical, financial, and human resources to complete their needs and eventually help them to stay longer along with having a quality of life. Moreover, with the significant rise in the capability of delivering health care to the public as well as in terms of entire clinical science, the definition of Palliative care is also evolving and eventually becoming more complex than what it used to be at earlier or initial stage (Knaul, et al., 2018).

As per Brinkman-Stoppelenburg (2018), the definition or meaning of palliative care has been focusing on providing relief to people at the last stage of their life to reduce their suffering in one way or the other, from the very initial time (Brinkman-Stoppelenburg, et al., 2018). Even though Palliative care is considered to be a non-existent and inadequate service; it is now being suggested or provided as a best practice, especially to people facing serious illness and is at the last stage of their life. Besides that, it is also required to mention here that, nowadays people are preferring palliative care to be implemented from the earlier trajectory of terminal issues or terminal conditions regarding health.

According to Quinn (2020), another considerable fact that should be considered related to PC (Palliative care) is that earlier this service was introduced to help the patients that are suffering from health issues regarding cancer; however, in the current time, approximately all serious conditions or terminal conditions are being integrated to offer the required treatment for the same (Quinn, et al., 2020). Lastly, as a result of all of this aforementioned information gathered from currently existing research, it could be evaluated that, Palliative care offers an effective service in terms of both enhancing quality of life and reducing the burden of symptoms (Quinn, et al., 2020).

Furthermore, according to Avati (2018), as far as the case of the UK is concerned, it is firstly needed to be mentioned that supportive care and palliative care differ in terms of philosophy from strategies for curing diseases along with primarily aiming at effects or aftermaths of a disease instead of its proper cure and cause. Initially, experts, as well as normal people, used to believe that palliative care or hospice care is particularly made for implementing it upon people who are dying; however, in reality, palliative care should be used from the time of diagnosis only, as it could eventually help the patients in having an enhanced quality of life (Avati, et al., 2018). After going through the evidence which informs about the cost-efficacy of palliative care which outweighs in comparison with other disease cures, the emphasis regarding these services in the UK has changed. More precisely, after considering the prominent evidence regarding benefits and perks related to palliative care in terms of cost-efficacy, it has eventually affected the entire country’s emphasis on the same. Besides that, as per Craigs (2018), the change in perception about palliative care has also helped the rise in usage or implementation of this care. In the UK, as earlier when it was just the case of people who are either dying or are suffering from cancer, not everyone used to consider it as an important thing; however, after the time when palliative care evolved into providing service to the individual as well as the family members even from the initial time of diagnosis, not just in case of cancer but for all chronic diseases, helped the people to consider it more often and more considerably (Craigs, et al., 2018).

Global Perspective on Palliative Care

Moreover, according to Das (2021), as far as the current situation of the UK in terms of palliative care is concerned, recently, a seven-point palliative care action plan was unveiled by a UK-based charity (Cicely Saunders International) that recognizes key challenges identified in UK’s palliative care system (Das, 2021). Moreover, this plan is also introduced to provide certain evidence-based solutions that eventually work to tackle the identified issues being faced by terminally ill people in the UK and their family members. It is also required to mention here that, this charity (Cicely Saunders International) released a statement that stated that in the UK, the demand for palliative care has eventually increased in a very significant and substantial manner. Earlier such increment in the demand was expected to be in the year 2040, but under certain circumstances, it eventually occurred in the year 2020 only (Das, 2021). This charity (Cicely Saunders International), also predicted in the year 2017 that as the disease patterns, as well as population demographics, are changing in a significant manner; thus, at least 500000 people in the UK (particularly in Wales and England) would require palliative care each care by the year 2040 (Das, 2021). However, it turned out to be a fact that this predicted demand was already reached in the year 2020, especially because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Moreover, as this demand was expected to be reached in 2040, with a sustained increase, thus there was no such preparation for the same (Das, 2021). This eventually resulted in a condition where the charity have to face several effects because of the Pandemic, such as postponed surgeries (even with the patients facing problems like cancer), delays in consultations, and an increment in long-term medical conditions. Since it was further required to work according to the demand, they eventually resulted in developing a plan i.e., an action plan that was particularly designed or prepared to cope with the situation to offer a proper, cure, care, and support to the individual as well as their family members.

According to Das (2015), because of the following situation in the UK, the amplified demand has eventually aggravated and highlighted the deficiencies existing in the UK’s palliative care system. These deficiencies ultimately affected the patients individually in a very [problematic manner. Also, the family members of such individuals got affected by the following situation. Thus, to meet such a demand, the charity has to plan for something significant to work for the better future of the UK. Eventually, the researchers of this charity planned to call for certain urgent reforms in the palliative care system. Under the reviews commissioned by the Government of the UK, an action plan for a better palliative care system was prepared. This plan proposed 24 actions that were particularly planned to enhance the patient’s condition and also to improve the effectiveness of service provided by NHS services (Das, 2021). Lastly, this plan included the reforms for palliative care offered by hospices, hospitals, communities, as well as in the homes of patients. Since the demand was very high and the situation for the patients was very problematic; thus, this also advocated for an overhaul of training of social care professionals as well as healthcare professionals. To be precise, this plan included a recommendation for hospitals to offer a high-quality face-to-face palliative care service for 7 days straight (Das, 2021). This plan also suggested offering the service for 24hours a day and 7 days a week, along with providing quick access to the patients in their homes or hospitals regarding pharmacy as well as expert or professional, to offer them the care that can effectively provide them proper cure as well as proper care for the issue they have been facing (Das, 2021). This plan also included that the professionals provided with the services should be highly qualified and skilled regarding the requirements so that there is no scope for adjustments in providing quality care. Lastly, this plan included a suggestion for a proper investment for the research and also to allow or give access to the patients in taking important decisions such as selecting the place where they want the service to be delivered or offered. This helps the patients to acknowledge their worth as well as also helps the entire palliative care system to work effectively and significantly (Das, 2021).

Defining Palliative Care

Apart from that, Palliative care also offers the people to plan for a good death, as it eventually helps the people facing terminal conditions in getting relief from suffering and distress (Gott, et al., 2008). As stated by Murray (2015), people are facing issues because of either suffering they have as per the diseases or they are not ready to accept the fact that they are going to die; however, by offering significant palliative care to such an individual patient, a proper help in planning a good death for them can be done. Besides that, it is also required to mention that, because of such a significant requirement of palliative care among seriously ill patients, it is needed by the government and the higher authorities regarding health care services to promote palliative care as much as possible (Murray, et al., 2015). This promotion eventually helps the people in acknowledging the importance of this care.

In addition, according to CARE, 2015, palliative care is the one that offers service even from the time of diagnosis. However, hospice care can also be provided in the last stage of terminally ill people. Hence, palliative care is better in terms of providing care to the people in problem (CARE, 2015). Moreover, this also showcases how palliative care is not just for the last stage of life but could be implemented even before the beginning of the treatment for terminal illness.

Research Methodology is a procedure, that includes the efficacy of selecting appropriate processes required in conducting research (Snyder, 2019). It is formed or used to evaluate some efficient results regarding the topic, “palliative care in the UK for persons living with terminal conditions”.

Research design is a process or an approach that is eventually an overall strategy for the researcher to use for conducting the required research (Salkind, 2010). Moreover, according to the research design approach, the researcher gets a chance to integrate all of the components and procedures of the research in a logical and cohort way, along with ensuring to address the major research topic and research questions. Typically, there are three types of research design in general which are qualitative research design, quantitative research design, and mixed research design (Hong, Gonzalez?Reyes, and Pluye, 2018). All the types of these research designs approaches have their advantages and disadvantages.

To begin with, the types of research design approaches, let’s initiate with qualitative research design. As per this approach, it is completely based upon observational data-gathering operations. Generally, this type of research design includes interviews and further depends upon the type of participants and type of interviews conducted (Rutberg, and Bouikidis, 2018). For instance, the relation of participants with the research problem and the way of interview (in face interview or over the telephone), eventually affects the entire findings and results of the research. Besides that, another considerable factor of qualitative research is that it has a very short or small size of samples, as it eventually focuses on the quality of the work.

Besides that, in the case of quantitative research design, the focus is on the quantity of the responses given by the samples or participants. It is also required to mention that, the quantitative research design approach is generally preferred in the cases of biology, chemistry, and other social sciences (Ishtiaq, 2019). As the focus of the approach is over the quantity of the responses, thus, it is required by the researcher to have a considerable number of participants for the research, to offer proper justice to the findings and conclusion of any given research paper. Lastly, in the case of mixed research design, the researcher gets the benefits or advantages from both other types of research design. More precisely, the mixed research design is nothing else but a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research design (Fryer, Larson-Hall, and Stewart, 2018).

Implementation of Palliative Care

After going through the aforementioned details regarding the research designs, it was evaluated that the quantitative research design would be appropriate for this particular research. Moreover, the main reason for selecting this approach is because of the huge number of responses it includes, as by using this approach researcher is enjoying the advantage of gathering the required data from diversified participants, which eventually offers proper justice to the findings and conclusion of the following paper. Besides that, the quantitative research design is also preferable in research related to biology, chemistry, and other social science topics, especially because of the reason that quantitative research design supports researchers in gathering and evaluating numerical data. Lastly, this should also be considered that a large amount of sample size helps in generalizing the conclusion.

In any research, data collection is used as a process that helps the researcher to gather the required data for the study or research (Zhou, et al., 2018). Moreover, the data is gathered in this process through the use of several resources in a systematic manner, to cope with certain rules and considerations (Littlejohns, et al., 2020). Also, the data is gathered here to meet the research objectives, aim, and research question. There are two types of methods for gathering the required data in any research i.e., primary and secondary methods of data collection. In the case of primary data collection, generally, all the data is from the current and updated time, as it is gathered from people using certain ways like conducting surveys or interviews (Franzitta, et al., 2020). Moreover, some other considerable examples regarding how data can be gathered from people are through conducting a group discussion, case study, or action research. Apart from that, in the case of the secondary method of data collection, is gathered from already existing materials or resources, especially from the previously published papers (Christensen, et al., 2019). These papers or already existing sources include articles, news articles, journal papers, research papers (Lee, Kim, and Desta, 2020). As such data is easily available over online platforms; thus, using this method for data gathering is also considered to be beneficial. However, the only problem with this type of method is that it lacks the latest and updated data, as all the papers being used here are already established in previous times.

After studying both the methods, it was evaluated here that both the methods of data collection are used here to have a variety of data, as the entire research is being implemented under the head of quantitative research which is precisely focused on the quantity of the response researcher have related to the research objectives.

Sampling is nothing but a part of primary data collection where the participants of the research are selected (Zirkel, Garcia, and Murphy, 2015). Moreover, the selected participants are referred to as samples of the research. To gather these samples, a certain criterion is needed to be followed. For instance, here in this research, the selection of the samples is implemented based on participants’ relation with the research question and research aim. To be precise, here in this research, a survey is conducted where certain questions from a prepared questionnaire are asked to the selected samples, to achieve the required finding as per the research objectives and research question.

Effectiveness of Palliative Care

Generally, to select the samples, it is required by the researcher to follow the methods of sampling to select the samples who can significantly represent a similar group of people. Here particularly, probability sampling is being used. By using probability sampling, the researcher could select the people on a random basis, which will help the researcher to acknowledge their perception as per their best knowledge (Draugalis, and Plaza, 2009). Furthermore, as this research is about Palliative care in the UK for terminally ill people, thus the samples selected for this paper will be the ones who are either terminally ill or have people in their relation who are facing terminal illness and related issues. By doing the same with the help of probability sampling from the hospitals in the UK, this research will get significant help in gathering the data which is completely related to the research aim and research questions, especially because of the reason that patients and their family members are the ones who are very precisely related to the concern of this research (Myin-Germeys, et al., 2009). The questionnaire prepared for the survey is a set of 10 questions that are completely related to the research topic, research aim, research objectives, and research question. Moreover, the sample size of this paper is 40. Lastly, for gathering these samples, the researcher is going to concern certain hospitals and clinics from the UK, to look for the appropriate samples.

After gathering the required data, analysing the collected data is also an important task to do, as it offers valued and authentic data to the researcher which eventually impacts the findings or outcomes of the research in a very significant manner (Rix, et al., 2022).  In this concern, data analysis has several methods that could be used by the researcher as per the demand of the research. The types of data analysis are thematic analysis, conversational analysis, disclosure analysis, content analysis, and statistical analysis (Raskind, et al., 2019)

In this paper particularly, the researcher is using statistical data, especially because it is helping the researcher in evaluating and analysing the collected quantitative data (Fatkina, et al., 2019). Besides that, another important reason for selecting this method of data analysis is that it is also helping the researcher in statistically analysing the data with the help of tables and graphs, that is eventually representing the data most efficiently. Furthermore, such data further contribute to representing the findings with proper comparison in between the major concerns (Bigot, 2020).

This section includes results analysed and evaluated from the data gathered throughout this paper. More precisely, the data gathered from both, i.e., primary as well as secondary resources are being discussed here along with proper evidence, to achieve the results regarding the same. Moreover, the results obtained in this section or this chapter are further used to evaluate the conclusions and recommendations regarding the research topic and research questions. Furthermore, it is also required to mention as an introduction of the following chapter that all of the 10 questions asked to the 40 participants or samples of the sampling process are discussed here one after the other, along with relating them with the appropriate secondary evidence. Lastly, as the statistical data analysis is selected for this research under the head of quantitative research design; thus, further mentioned discussion as well as results are also being mentioned according to that.

Palliative Care in the UK

Here are the illustrations for each question that are asked as a part of the survey for this research.

Email id for survey - 

Password –  

Table 1

Q1. Please specify your Gender.
Male	16
Female	24
Prefer not to say	0
Others	0

 

Figure 1

According to the first question asked in the survey, it could be evaluated that the participants that took part in the survey were from both genders i.e., male and female. According to this, it could be said that the data gathered for the research has the perspective of both genders, and hence the information gathered from the survey could be considered as diverse information. More precisely, the total number of responses gathered from the survey was 40, out of which 40% (count = 16) of the respondents were male, whereas 60% (count = 24) of the total respondents were female. Besides that, another considerable piece of information here is that none of the samples have selected the option of prefer not to say.  Lastly, by observing the number of respondents of both genders could be easily compared, and hence both the genders were included in the survey sufficiently.

Table 2

Q2. Have you, your family member, or any known person has taken palliative care service for their well-being?
Yes	19
No	13
Maybe	8

Figure 2

In the following survey, the second question asked to students was related to the concern, about whether the sample of the survey has any relation with the people who have taken or taking the service related to palliative care. The main reason for involving this question was to acknowledge the facts regarding the relation of the participants with the palliative care, as it will eventually help us to acknowledge the awareness about the palliative care service among the people living out there in the UK. However, after going through the responses we can easily evaluate that approximately half of the population is aware of the palliative care services, especially because 47.5 percent of the total responses, i.e., 19 samples are related the palliative care services. Besides that, this question also helps to acknowledge the facts regarding how many terminally ill people are considering palliative care for their betterment either in terms of achieving good health and longer life or in planning a good death (Gott, et al., 2008).

Table 3

Q3. Do you agree with the statement that palliative care is efficient for people facing the terminally ill in providing an optimized quality of life?
Strongly Disagree	9
Disagree	6
Neutral	7
Agree	16
Disagree	2

 

Figure 3

In the case of this question, people were asked about the efficiency of palliative care and their perception about the same. As a result, it was evaluated that people have mixed feelings about the same. As 40 percent of the people were agreeing with the efficiency of palliative care in terms of providing quality of life to terminally ill people. However, it is also needed to be noticed here that, 15% of the total sample size (40) were disagreeing with the following statement. Analogously, 5% of samples selected the option of strongly agree. Hence, it could be said here that a considerable amount of people agrees with the statement that palliative care is efficient and eventually helps people in achieving a quality of life. Moreover, 22.5% of the total sample size also selected the option of strongly disagree, which eventually results in a fact that they believe that people who are terminally ill cannot live more and also that even palliative care can help them neither in having a quality of life nor in planning for a good death. Lastly, 17.5% of people were neutral regarding the same, which eventually results in the fact that the majority of the people believe that palliative care is beneficial and effective. In support of the same, as discussed in the aforementioned literature, Palliative care is nothing else but medical care specialized for people who are suffering from some serious illness. It is also required to mention here that, this medical care is particularly aimed towards offering an optimized quality of life along with mitigating the sufferings of complex and serious illnesses among concerned patients (Mercadante, Gregoretti, and Cortegiani, 2018).

Table 4

Q4. When are the people eligible for taking palliative care?
At the initial stage of diagnosis	16
At the last stage of their life	8
In between the process of diagnosis	16
Other	0

 

Figure 4

The main reason for selecting this question as a part of the following survey was to get aware of what people think about palliative care and when it should be used. For instance, if people are considering it to be taken at the final stages of diagnosis, then they are preferring it for planning it for a good death. But, if the people are considering it at the initial stages, then they are counting it as care that will eventually offer patients quality of life. According to the responses, it is clear that 80 percent of the people (40%+40%) are the ones who think palliative care helps terminally ill patients by offering them a quality of life and also eventually helps them to live longer. Similarly, as per the secondary resources also, indeed it is true that palliative care helps people at the last stages of their life to plan for a good death, but it also somewhere helps them in having a quality of life with the certain hope of living longer and better. Moreover, palliative care evolved into providing service to the individual as well as the family members even from the initial time of diagnosis, not just in case of cancer but for all chronic diseases (Craigs, et al., 2018).

Table 5

Q5. Where should patients receive palliative care?
In the hospital	9
At the home of the patient	10
As per the choice of the patient	11
As per the choice of social care or healthcare professional	10

 

Figure 5

As per the responses obtained in this particular question, there are no such significant changes amid the options provided to the people. Moreover, it could be said that people have mixed reviews about the place where patients should take palliative care. However, 11 responses with a weightage of 27.5% i.e., highest in comparison to all other consecutive options, were with the option that palliative care should be provided to the people at the place of their own choice, as it will help them in acknowledging their worth and thus, this step could also be counted as a part of practice related to palliative care.

Besides that, as far as the case of facts or details provided by prominent authors and health experts regarding the same is concerned, it is required to mention that allowing patients to select a place as their own choice helps them to acknowledge their worth as well as also helps the entire palliative care system to work effectively and significantly. Moreover, as mentioned in the seven-point plan also, it was required to provide the access to the patients for selecting the place for services according to their convenience (Das, 2021).

Table 6

Q6. Do you agree with the statement that palliative care is better than other social or hospice care?
Strongly Disagree	11
Disagree	19
Neutral	8
Agree	2
Disagree	0

 

Figure 6

There are several discussions or topics regarding the debate, related to the difference between palliative and hospice care. However, using this question as a part of the survey was also because it will inform the information about which type of care is better for terminally ill people, as well as to acknowledge how much people are aware of the facts regarding the differences between these two types of care. According to the obtained responses, it could be observed that people 27.5% of the people out of total respondents were strongly agreeing that palliative care is better than hospice care. Similarly, 47.5% of the responses were agreeing with the same. Thus, as a result of this, it could be clearly stated that palliative care is better than hospice care, as 75% of the respondents used to believe this. Apart from this, it is also required to mention that, according to this paper published in 2015, palliative care is the one that offers service even from the time of diagnosis. However, hospice care can also be provided in the last stage of terminally ill people. Hence, palliative care is better in terms of providing care to the people in problem (CARE, 2015).

Table 7

Q7. Do you agree with the statement that, palliative care is easily accessible or available for terminally ill people living in the UK?
Strongly Disagree	9
Disagree	4
Neutral	18
Agree	9
Disagree	0

 

Figure 7

As per the responses, 45% of the total responses were neutral towards the statement that, palliative care is easily accessible or available for terminally ill people living in the UK. Besides that, 32.5% of the total responses were disagreeing with the statement. Lastly, only 22.5% of people were agreeing with the following statement. This eventually means that a lot of people were not aware of the access to the palliative care service or even there are very few palliative care services available out there in the UK. According to the given paper by Abel (2021), efficient palliative care is not that easily accessible to people in the UK. Moreover, problems like linguistic barriers, lack of awareness, distance problems, and other problems are making it difficult for the people of the UK to have access to palliative care (Abel, et al., 2021).

Table 8

Q8. Do you agree with the statement that palliative care helps terminally ill patients in planning for a good death effectively?
Strongly Disagree	6
Disagree	4
Neutral	13
Agree	13
Disagree	4

 

Figure 8

Initially, palliative care was introduced only to provide care to the people who are at their last stage of life and need to resolve the burden they have regarding their treatment and news of death (Gott, et al., 2008). Moreover, by providing palliative care to such people, they eventually get better with their mental stress, anxiety, and depression, as a result of which they eventually get help in obtaining a good plan for their death. Similarly, as showcased in the chart in the survey also, it could be observed that 42.5% of the total responses agreed to the statement that, palliative care helps terminally ill patients in planning for a good death effectively. 

Table 9

Q9. Do you agree that the demand for palliative care has increased significantly during the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Strongly Disagree	14
Disagree	15
Neutral	8
Agree	3
Disagree	0

 

Figure 9

As per responses obtained from the paper, 72.5% of the responses agreed to the statement that, the demand for palliative care has increased significantly during the time of the COVID-19 Pandemic. Besides that, it is also required to mention that only 7.5% of people disagreed with the following statement. Similarly, in the case of data gathered from secondary resources, it was evaluated that, in the presented data from the paper given by Das (2021), during the time of care the rate of depression among old aged people was increased very significantly. Moreover, it is also required to mention that, a demand which was expected to arrive in the year 2040, was already reached in the year 2020, just because of the COVID-19 Pandemic (Das, 2021).

Table 10

Q10. Do you think, palliative care is being promoted efficiently as per the requirement of such type of care in the United Kingdom?
Yes	21
No	9
Maybe	10
Other	0

 

Figure 10

Samples of the survey agreed that the promotion of palliative care is being implemented efficiently, especially with the support of 52.5% of responses. Besides that, it is also required to mention that, only 22.5% of respondents were refusing this statement, the rest were not aware of it. Similarly, as per the secondary resources also the required promotion of such type of care is being implemented effectively (Rosenberg, and Yates, 2010).

Conclusion

To begin with the conclusion, it is required to mention that, palliative care is nothing else but care offered to seriously or terminally ill people. More precisely, by offering palliative care, patients can be provided with a quality of life, even at the stage of life where they are going to die within a few years. Moreover, this type of care helps the patients in planning a good death for them. For instance, people who are terminally ill are generally also facing issues that are eventually leading them towards mental stress, depression, and anxiety; according to which, when such patients are provided with a particular type of care i.e., palliative care, then they can receive a good quality of life with the help of which they can not only plan for a good death, but also in certain cases they can have hope for living longer as compared to the previous expectation. As, a result of which it could be concluded to the fact that the promotion of palliative care is required very significantly and thus a proper recommendation regarding the same is required. Lastly, it is also required to mention as a fact that in the UK, the demand for palliative care has eventually increased in a significant manner. Earlier such increment in the demand was expected to be in the year 2040, but under certain circumstances, it eventually occurred in the year 2020 only. Thus, the following mentioned recommendations are required very importantly.

To improve as well as to promote palliative care, further mentioned recommendations could be used.

1. Start emphasizing the planning for inevitable things, especially by making a healthy environment around the patients and eventually helping them in having an efficient conversation with all their loved ones.
2. Refinement of medical care coverage is also required as an important recommendation for terminally ill people. For instance, a policy should be created by the higher authorities, which eventually helps them by offering a mandatary service of palliative care with a qualified or certified team.
3. More staff members should be trained for palliative care, to offer the efficiency and benefits of this care to all the people who need this care. Besides that, doctors and government should also suggest and promote palliative care at the national level, to make people understand the need for the same.
4. Lastly, certain models should be prepared as a part of frameworks for palliative, which apply to the patients as per their condition regarding the concerned disease.

References 

Abel, J., Kellehear, A., Mills, J. and Patel, M., 2021. Access to palliative care reimagined. Future Healthcare Journal, 8(3), p.e699.

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