ArticlePalliative medicine2026
Specialist palliative care improves patient experience, reduces bed days and saves money: An economic modelling study of home- and hospital-based care.
Article in Palliative medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- The state of UK palliative care - time for change at scale and pace.Future healthcare journal · 2026Article
- Characteristics of older people who experience high-cost hospital care at the end of life and report low-satisfaction: Evidence of low-value care from bereaved carer surveys in England.Palliative care and social practice · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundHigh-quality evidence suggests that specialist palliative care reduces the odds of dying in hospital. The economic implications have not been established.
aimTo evaluate the cost-effectiveness of home- and hospital-based specialist palliative care for adults with poor prognosis in England.
designHealth-economic decision-modelling using five-state Markov cohort models with a 24-h cycle and lifetime horizon. SETTING/
participantsWe evaluated home- and hospital-based care separately. We modelled counterfactuals using Cochrane review evidence of treatment effects on place of death and quality of life. We estimated place of death distributions, utilisation, quality-adjusted life years, and unit and intervention costs from the literature.
resultsHome-based care was associated with reduced costs of £7908 per person (95% confidence interval: -18,044 to 395) and increased quality-adjusted life years by 0.035 per person (0.033 to 0.037). Hospital-based care reduced costs by £6480 per person (-11,482 to -1671) and increased quality-adjusted life years by 0.033 per person (0.031 to 0.035). We estimated that for England in 2022, specialist palliative care supported over 20,000 people to die outside of hospital, saved approximately 1.5 million hospital bed days and reduced system expenditures by £817 million.
conclusionSpecialist palliative care reduces hospital bed days, deaths in hospital and healthcare costs, as well as improving quality of life, among adults in England. A minority who might benefit currently receive specialist palliative care and needs are growing rapidly. Expanding access may yield further gains, but bridging current gaps in access also requires new approaches to reaching and meeting the needs of underserved groups.
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