Palliative care provision for patients with decompensated advanced chronic liver disease: lessons from the South West

We were delighted to see specific guidance on palliative care (PC) included in the recently published British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) best practice guidance on the outpatient management of cirrhosis.1 Decompensated advanced chronic liver disease (dACLD) carries a significant, and seldom addressed, symptom burden.2 3 PC interventions demonstrably improve physical and psychological symptoms in dACLD and do not negatively impact survival.4 Severn and Peninsula Research in Gastroenterology is a trainee research network. We undertook a retrospective regional service evaluation to assess the quality of PC provided to patients within their last year of life (LYOL) who died of dACLD in the South West of England. Specific objectives were to determine the proportion of patients with documented discussions regarding prognosis and advance care planning (ACP), and/or referral to specialist PC (SPC) services. A pre-COVID-19 patient cohort was selected to avoid the confounder of reduced outpatient services during the pandemic. Data regarding adults who died of dACLD between 1 February 2019 and 31 January 2020 were collected from electronic records. Full inclusion and exclusion criteria and statistical analysis details are outlined in online supplemental material. Documented discussions with all members …