• Mark Jackson.
• Policy & Public Affairs Manager for England, Marie Curie, England.
• Br. Med. Bull. 2022 Jul 9; 142 (1): 44-51.

IntroductionCovid-19 led to a sustained increase in deaths in all four United Kingdom nations, placing strain on the UK's palliative and end-of-life care sector and raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of the sector's funding and resourcing model in the face of rising demand for these services in the coming decades.Sources Of DataPublished research, Marie Curie, King's College London Cicely Saunders Institute, Hull York Medical School, University of Hull, University of Cambridge, National Statistics, PubMed, DOI.Areas Of AgreementCare for people at the end of their lives is a core part of the UK's health and care system with demand set to increase significantly as the UK's population ages.Areas Of ControversyThe UK's funding model for palliative and end-of-life care, with most care delivered by charitable sector providers and reliant on charitable donations, may be unsustainable in the face of increasing demand.Growing PointsThe Covid-19 pandemic led to rapid service innovation in palliative and end-of-life care, and providers should assess which of and how these innovations can be retained after the pandemic.Areas Timely For Developing ResearchAlthough there has been a rapid growth in knowledge during Covid-19, gaps still remain including: the reasons underlying shifts to deaths at home and the implications for family carers; the education needs of the wider healthcare workforce in palliative care; the impact of specialist palliative care services on the wider health system, including hospital admissions and place of death; and inequalities in the experiences of dying, death and bereavement during Covid-19 among groups such as those from lower socioeconomic groups and BAME communities.© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

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