Lay summary
Internationally, COVID-19 has led to increased demand for health care services, including palliative and end-of-life care. Hospice needed to respond rapidly, adapt to new ways of working as resources stretched beyond their normal limits.
The study will examine preparedness for, and impact of, COVID-19 on hospice community services in the historically linked countries of New Zealand and Scotland. We want to understand the innovative practices developed to deliver palliative care to the community in light of the challenges posed by COVID-19. In both countries, a telephone survey will be conducted of purposively sampled hospices from regions according to the number of COVID-19-positive patients per 100,000 inhabitants.
While results will provide a snapshot of hospices’ adaptive practices in both countries, a larger evaluation is needed to explore what service features and processes work best for community patients and carers in the context of COVID-19, particularly for indigenous and underserved populations.