• Julie Kinley, Jo Hockley, Louisa Stone, Michael Dewey, Penny Hansford, Robert Stewart, Paul McCrone, Aysha Begum, and Nigel Sykes.
• Care Home Project Team, St Christophers Hospice, 51-59 Lawrie Park Road Sydenham, London SE26 6DZ, UK.
• Age Ageing. 2014 May 1;43(3):375-9.

Objectivesto identify the care currently provided to residents dying in U.K. nursing care homes.Methodstudy participants were residents who had died within 38 nursing care homes in southeast England over a 3-year period. The nursing care homes had been recruited to take part in a cluster randomised controlled trial looking at different models of facilitation while implementing the Gold Standards Framework in Care Homes (GSFCH) programme. Two researchers examined the notes and daily records of all residents who died in each of these homes between the 1 June 2008 and the 31 May 2011.Resultsa total of 2,444 residents died during the 3-year period. Fifty-six percent of these residents died within a year of admission. The support from specialist healthcare services to residents during their last 6 months of life was variable.Conclusionsnursing care homes have established links with some external healthcare providers. These links included the GP, palliative care nurses and physiotherapy. As dependency of resident increase with 56% residents dying within a year of admission these links need to be expanded. The provision of health care that meets the needs of future nursing care home residents needs to be 'proactively' obtained rather than left to chance.

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