Within Ireland, specialist palliative care is delivered by the HSE and voluntary service providers working in partnership under Service Level Arrangements. Specialist palliative care (SPC), including critical end of life care, is provided by specialist palliative care teams in acute hospitals, community settings and specialist inpatient units (hospices) across the country.

The “National Summary of Patient Activity Data for Adult Specialist Palliative Care Services in The Republic of Ireland, 2012-2015”, sponsored by the Irish Hospice Foundation and the HSE has recently been published.  This report presents collated data from the Specialist Palliative Care Minimum Data Set (MDS) from the years 2012-2015 and reflects a picture of the activity within the specialist palliative care services in community, day-care and inpatient units.  Every service contributes to the Minimum Data Set and we are fortunate to have almost 100% compliance with regard to metric data submission.

The work on the report was carried out in partnership with the HSE and a project steering group. For their insight, guidance and commitment to this initiative, we acknowledge the input and work of John Weafer, Researcher; Stephen Toft, Palliative Care Programme Officer, HSE; Stephen Higgins, Consultant in Palliative Medicine, Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services & Tallaght Hospital; Marie Lynch, Head of Healthcare Programmes, Irish Hospice Foundation; Carol Murray, Head of Non-Clinical Support Services, Milford Care Centre; Eileen O’Leary, Non-Residential Services Manager, Cork and Kerry Community Health. The project group was chaired/project managed by Sharon Foley and Sheilagh Reaper Reynolds.

We encourage you to read the data report and circulate to colleagues and partner organisations.

The report is available on the HSE website https://www.hse.ie/eng/services/publications/

and also on the IHF website https://hospicefoundation.ie/?page_id=28820&preview=true