ABSTRACT
Background: Palliative care and hospice services responded to the Covid-19 pandemic, but it is not clear how their workload has been affected. Aim: To identify factors associated with busyness in UK palliative care services during the Covid-19 pandemic. Methods: Online survey of clinical leads of palliative care services to understand the palliative care response to COVID-19 (CovPall). Study population characteristics were described. Unadjusted and multivariable ordinal logistic regression investigated factors (type of service, management type, number of confirmed (by test) Covid-19 cases, region, staff shortages) associated with busyness. Busyness was measured using a five-point scale (a lot less busy, slightly less busy, about the same, slightly more busy, a lot more busy). Results: 277 UK respondents: 33 Scotland, 4 Northern Ireland, 15 Wales, 225 in nine regions of England. Services reported being a lot more busy (71, 26%), slightly more busy (62, 22%), about the same (53, 19%), slightly less busy (50, 18%), much less busy (28, 10%). Multivariable analysis showed the following factors were associated with increased busyness: being a specialist palliative home care service (OR 1.93, 95% CI 1.15-3.25), providing hands on nursing care at home or in the community (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.70-6.19), confirmed number (by test) Covid-19 cases (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.01), being a publicly managed (NHS) service (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.11-4.34), and experiencing staff shortages (OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.64-4.48). Conclusion: Community services and those publicly managed (NHS services) experienced increased busyness during Covid-19 pandemic. This suggests these services may have been more able to shift resources to respond to increased needs and changing patient priorities during the pandemic. This has implications for future funding models for palliative care.