COVPALL research cited by World Health Organization

6th December 2023

CovPall research has shown that UK-wide policies may have disproportionately impacted people from ethnically diverse groups at the end of life during the Covid pandemic. In addition, healthcare providers have been found to lack understanding of the difference between equal and equitable care, which can lead to distress and inequality in outcomes.

To address this gap in understanding and to improve care delivered to those at the end of life, Dr Sabrina Bajwah and team from the Cicely Saunders Institute at King’s College London developed an educational film for everyone working in palliative and end of life care.

The film, funded by the Medical Research Foundation, has been co-developed with a focus group of ethnically diverse patients and health professionals. The film harnesses patient, bereaved relatives’ and health professionals’ voice and experiences to improve understanding of:

  • The unique needs of those from ethnically diverse groups
  • Why it is important to address these needs
  • The difference between equality and equity
  • What we can do to deliver equitable care

Palliative Care-shifting the focus from equality to equity was launched in June 2023 and has had >2,500 views to date with presentations at the European Palliative Care Congress and Hospice UK. Feedback comments have included “this film is incredibly powerful” and “this film was both challenging and uplifting, and should be watched by everyone working in healthcare”.

An e-learning on the national eELCA for NHS and social care health professionals e-learning platform with the film and 8 assessment questions was launched in July 2023. End-of-life Care for All (e-ELCA) programme

In 2022, this research was cited in UK Parliament POSTnote on Palliative and end-of-life care.

In 2023, this research was cited in World Health Organization policy: Transforming the health and social equity landscape: promoting socially just and inclusive growth to improve resilience, solidarity and peace. 

WHO-EURO-2023-7761-47529-69924-eng.pdf

Transforming the health and social equity landscape

Bajwah S, Koffman J, Hussain J, Bradshaw A, Hocaoglu MB, Fraser LK et al. Specialist palliative
care services response to ethnic minority groups with COVID-19: equal but inequitable-an
observational study. BMJ Support Palliat Care. 2021:bmjspcare-2021-003083. doi: 10.1136/
bmjspcare-2021-003083.