Advance care planning for patients with advanced multiple long-term conditions: a qualitative thematic analysis of health and social care professionals’ perspectives
Georgina Simpson, Felicity Dewhurst, Philip Mordue, Charlotte Stenson, Mark Adley, Katie Brittain, Barbara Hanratty · 2026
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Description
Georgina Simpson and colleagues examine advance care planning for people with several advanced long-term illnesses in a 2026 interview study. Planning future care, including choices for a time when a person can no longer decide, is hard when decline creeps slowly and many separate services share the patient. Twenty-seven health and social care workers, commissioners and managers across four regions of England spoke about their practice. Themes came from a wider study of palliative needs.
Three themes stood out. Decline stayed invisible as illness burden and social hardship piled up. Systems blocked ownership through scarce resources, fragmented care, poor information sharing and thin training, with extra risk for people facing inequity. Good planning started early, returned often, rested on trust and included families and care networks. The study urges routine, prompted planning tied to markers such as falling function and rising support needs, so preferences are set before crisis.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Georgina Simpson, Felicity Dewhurst, Philip Mordue, Charlotte Stenson, Mark Adley, Katie Brittain, Barbara Hanratty |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 60 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |