A retrospective audit of non-malignant admissions to a regional hospice in 2003 and 2006

There is increasing pressure to provide palliative care to patients on the basis of need, not diagnosis. Additionally, there is a paucity of literature describing how the palliative care community is rising to this challenge.

This retrospective audit investigated the number of patients without cancer admitted to a regional hospice in Dundee, Scotland, in 2003 compared with 2006 and whether these patients had different characteristics to patients with cancer.

There was a significant rise in the number of patients admitted with non-malignant conditions; 6/328 patients were admitted during 2003 with non-malignant conditions compared with 23/340 in 2006 (P=0.0037). There were no differences in age (P=0.5), length of stay (P=0.57), outcome of admission (P=0.59) or reason for admission (P=0.7) when those without cancer were compared with a contemporaneous group of 60 consecutive patients admitted with cancer.

Local increases in non-malignant admissions mirror national figures. Underlying reasons for the local increase were unable to be studied in this retrospective audit and would require further study. More needs to be known about how patients, their carers and staff feel about hospice care for those with advanced non-malignant conditions and where, how and by whom palliative care for all should be provided.