Lancaster Professor highlights ‘missed opportunity’ to influence work of the Palliative and End-of-Life Care Commission

Professor of Palliative Care Catherine Walshe, who is a registered nurse, is at the forefront of a campaign to highlight the lack of nursing expertise on the new Palliative and End-of-Life Care Commission.
The Commission has been set up to identify current strengths and shortfalls in palliative care across the UK. It will report to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and Members of the Houses of Commons and Lords. The report will be available for providers, clinicians, and the public.
However, of the twenty-three commissioners appointed so far, eleven are medical doctors, and only two have a nursing background.
Palliative care is provided across a range of settings. This includes in hospitals and community, in care homes and at home. It includes the care given by specialists, and core care by a range of health and social care professionals.
Professor Walshe, from the International Observatory on End-of-Life Care, together with nurses Alison Leary and Ben Bowers, have criticised the lack of nursing expertise on the commission.
Professor Walshe said: “To miss the range of knowledge and expertise that nurses can bring to the commission potentially undermines the quality of the recommendations that the commission can make.”
Nurses instigate, coordinate, and provide most care to those who are towards the end of their lives. In hospice settings for example there are about ten nursing staff to every doctor.
Their campaign to highlight this missed opportunity to enable nursing expertise to be front and centre in the commission has been supported by over forty nurse and doctor leaders across the UK who have signed a letter asking the commission to address this imbalance.
Alison Leary, Professor of Healthcare and Workforce Modelling at London South Bank University, said: "Policy decisions should be informed by evidence and subject matter expertise; not utilising the extensive experience of nurses in palliative care who work and research with people who use services and their families on a daily basis seems like a missed opportunity."
Ben Bowers, Clinical Academic and Nurse Consultant in Palliative Care at the University of Cambridge, said: “We strongly recommend strengthening the nursing voice on the Commission. Nurse leaders in palliative care have rich insight to bring to the Commission, different to those from other professional backgrounds due to how much end-of-life care nurses oversee and provide.”
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