• Katherine E Sleeman, Rachel L Cripps, MurtaghFliss E MFEMCicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.Wolfson Palliative Care Research Centre, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, Hull, United Kingdom., Adejoke O Oluyase, Mevhibe B Hocaoglu, Matthew Maddocks, Catherine Walshe, Nancy Preston, Lesley Dunleavy, Andy Bradshaw, Sabrina Bajwah, Irene J Higginson, and Lorna K Fraser.
• Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King's College London, London, United Kingdom.
• J Palliat Med. 2022 Mar 1; 25 (3): 465471465-471.

AbstractObjectives: To identify factors associated with palliative care services being busier during Covid-19. Methods: Cross-sectional online survey of UK palliative care services (April to July 2020) (CovPall). Ethical approval was received from King's College London Research Ethics committee (LRS-19/20-18541). The primary outcome was change in busyness (five-point ordinal scale). Ordinal logistic regression investigated factors associated with the primary outcome. Results: Of 277 responses, 71 (26%) reported being a lot more busy, 62 (22%) slightly more, 53 (19%) about the same, 50 (18%) slightly less, and 28 (10%) much less busy. Increased business was associated with homecare services (odds ratio [OR] 1.93, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.15-3.25), nursing care at home (OR 3.24, 95% CI 1.70-6.19), publicly managed services (OR 2.20, 95% CI 1.11-4.34), Covid-19 cases (OR 1.01, 95% CI 1.00-1.01), and staff shortages (OR 2.71, 95% CI 1.64-4.48). Conclusion: Services providing community care, and publicly managed services, may have been better able to respond to escalating needs during Covid-19. This has potential implications for both service delivery and funding models.

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