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UK tops "Quality of Death" Index; Ireland gets a 4th ranking
UK tops "Quality of Death" Index and Ireland gets a 4th ranking according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's investigation of care services in 40 countries.
The EIU says while "quality of life" is a common phrase, "quality of death" is considered far less often. Too many people, even in countries that have excellent healthcare systems, suffer a poor quality of death - even when death comes naturally. According to the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, while more than 100m patients and family care-givers worldwide need palliative care annually, less than 8% of this number actually receives it.
With this in mind, the EIU devised a "Quality of Death" Index to rank countries according to their provision of end-of-life care. The Index, commissioned by the Lien Foundation and published last week, measures the current environment for end-of-life care services across 40 countries.
At the top of the table is the UK, which has led the way globally in terms of its hospice care network and statutory involvement in end-of-life care. The UK's top rank comes despite the country having a far-from-perfect healthcare system. It places equal 28th in the Basic End-of Life Healthcare Environment sub-category (which accounts for 20% of the overall score). But the UK ranks first in the Quality of End-of-Life Care sub-category, which includes indicators such as public awareness, training availability, access to pain killers and doctor-patient transparency (and accounts for 40% of the overall score).
Many rich nations lag a long way behind in the overall score: these include Denmark (22nd), Italy (24th) and South Korea (32nd). In these cases the quality and availability of care is often poor and policy co-ordination lacking. The bottom-ranked countries in the Quality of Death Index include, unsurprisingly, developing and BRIC countries, such as China, Brazil, India and Uganda, where despite notable exceptions of excellence - such as the Indian state of Kerala, and services delivered through Hospice Africa Uganda - progress on providing end-of-life care is slow. In the case of China and India, further problems are vast populations for whom end-of-life coverage extends to only a fraction of those in need.
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UK tops "Quality of Death" Index and Ireland gets a 4th ranking according to the Economist Intelligence Unit's investigation of care services in 40 countries.
The EIU says while "quality of life" is a common phrase, "quality of death" is considered far less often. Too many people, even in countries that have excellent healthcare systems, suffer a poor quality of death - even when death comes naturally. According to the Worldwide Palliative Care Alliance, while more than 100m patients and family care-givers worldwide need palliative care annually, less than 8% of this number actually receives it.
With this in mind, the EIU devised a "Quality of Death" Index to rank countries according to their provision of end-of-life care. The Index, commissioned by the Lien Foundation and published last week, measures the current environment for end-of-life care services across 40 countries.
At the top of the table is the UK, which has led the way globally in terms of its hospice care network and statutory involvement in end-of-life care. The UK's top rank comes despite the country having a far-from-perfect healthcare system. It places equal 28th in the Basic End-of Life Healthcare Environment sub-category (which accounts for 20% of the overall score). But the UK ranks first in the Quality of End-of-Life Care sub-category, which includes indicators such as public awareness, training availability, access to pain killers and doctor-patient transparency (and accounts for 40% of the overall score).
Many rich nations lag a long way behind in the overall score: these include Denmark (22nd), Italy (24th) and South Korea (32nd). In these cases the quality and availability of care is often poor and policy co-ordination lacking. The bottom-ranked countries in the Quality of Death Index include, unsurprisingly, developing and BRIC countries, such as China, Brazil, India and Uganda, where despite notable exceptions of excellence - such as the Indian state of Kerala, and services delivered through Hospice Africa Uganda - progress on providing end-of-life care is slow. In the case of China and India, further problems are vast populations for whom end-of-life coverage extends to only a fraction of those in need.
Read the rest
