Written question asked by Annette Brooke (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 14 November 2011, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 22 November 2011. It was answered by Paul Burstow (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 22 November 2011 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Palliative Care

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many bed days the NHS provided for palliative care in the last 12 months.

Answer: The number of finished consultant episode bed days for the main specialty 'palliative medicine' in 2010-11 as reported in the Hospital Episode Statistics was 115,487¹. However, these data reflect the specialty of the consultant responsible for the care of the patient not the range of treatment that the patient received. It is not possible to extrapolate from these data to say how many people receive palliative care in national health service hospitals: for example, a patient under the care of a cardiologist might also receive palliative care but the data would record the cardiology specialism.The final report of the independent Palliative Care Funding Review (PCFR) recognised that there is a paucity of data available on palliative care. The Department is working with the National End of Life Care Intelligence Network and through the work to take forward the PCFR to address this issue."¹ source:""Hospital Episode Statistics and The NHS Information Centre for health and social care."

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 81592; 536 c352W
Session: 2010-12
Related items: Palliative Care: Finance
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Palliative care
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk