The impact and implications of Covid-19 on the relational, social, and healthcare experiences of hospice care in the West Midlands

生命受到限制的人是最容易受到COVID-19影响的人。直到最近，临终关怀在很大程度上与亲自，专家和以建筑为中心的支持有关。新型冠状病毒肺炎（COVID-19，即2019冠状病毒病）是重新设计临终关怀的催化剂，它带来了快速而持续的变化，影响着临终关怀和临终支持的各个方面。然而，我们不知道这些变化对临终关怀服务的有效性如何，它们如何影响提供或接受临终关怀和支持的体验，以及这些变化是否可能受到不均衡的影响。这项研究的目的是确定全国相关的建议，以减轻新冠肺炎对弱势服务使用者和照顾他们的人的临终关怀服务的不利关系，社会和医疗影响。西米德兰兹郡地区提供了一个理想的背景下，探索这些问题，其多元化的社区和广泛的人口由22个临终关怀服务。我们将整理和提供一个专家审查的灰色证据，对新冠肺炎相关的服务重新设计，在该地区的临终关怀正在产生。我们还将深入了解在疫情期间接受和提供临终关怀的人员的经验，以及影响这一点的决定因素。我们将利用这些证据迅速为地方和国家的政策和实践提出建议。我们将利用我们现有的网络，并与玛丽·居里合作，编写一系列报告，在整个项目期间向临终关怀服务用户、利益攸关方、政治领导人和民间社会团体交付和分发。

People with life limiting conditions are some of the most vulnerable to Covid-19. Until recently, hospice care has largely been associated with in-person, specialist, and building-centric support. Covid-19 has been a catalyst to its redesign, bringing rapid and on-going changes that are affecting every aspect of hospice care and support for the dying. However, we do not know how effective these changes to hospice services have been, how they have affected experiences of providing or receiving hospice care and support, and if these changes may have been experienced unevenly.The study's aim is to identify nationally relevant recommendations to mitigate adverse relational, social and healthcare impacts of Covid-19 upon hospice services for vulnerable service users and those that care for them. The West Midlands region provides an ideal context in which to explore these issues, with its diverse community and broad demographic population served by 22 hospices.We will collate and provide an expert review of the grey evidence on Covid-19-associated service redesign that hospices in the region are producing. We will also produce in-depth understanding of the experiences of those involved in receiving and providing hospice care during the pandemic, and the determinants that are affecting this.We will use this evidence to quickly develop recommendations for local and national policy and practice. We will draw on our existing networks and collaborate with Marie Curie to develop a series of reports, delivered and disseminated throughout the project, to hospice service users, stakeholders, political leaders and civil society groups.