Measuring the costs and quality of palliative care: a discussion paper

In an era of ever increasing emphasis on cost-effectiveness of health care, and with the introduction of the internal market, there is now an urgent need for information on the costs and quality of palliative care. This paper highlights the complexities involved in acquiring and measuring such information and discusses methods which were tried out in an exploratory study. The study took the form of in-depth case studies in two hospices, one in the voluntary sector and one in the NHS.