Association of primary and community care services with emergency visits and hospital admissions at the end of life in people with cancer: a retrospective cohort study

Objective: To examine the association between primary and community care use and measures of acute hospital use in people with cancer at the end of life.

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: We used Discover, a linked administrative and clinical data set from general practices, community and hospital records in North West London (UK).

Participants: People registered in general practices, with a diagnosis of cancer who died between 2016 and 2019.

Primary and secondary outcome measures: ≥3 hospital admissions during the last 90 days, ≥1 admissions in the last 30 days and ≥1 emergency department (ED) visit in the last 2 weeks of life.

Results: Of 3581 people, 490 (13.7%) had ≥3 admissions in last 90 days, 1640 (45.8%) had ≥1 admission in the last 30 days, 1042 (28.6%) had ≥1 ED visits in the last 2 weeks; 1069 (29.9%) had more than one of these indicators. Contacts with community nurses in the last 3 months (≥13 vs <4) were associated with fewer admissions in the last 30 days (risk ratio (RR) 0.88, 95% CI 0.90 to 0.98) and ED visits in the last 2 weeks of life (RR 0.79, 95% CI 0.68 to 0.92). Contacts with general practitioners in the last 3 months (≥11 vs <4) was associated with higher risk of ≥3 admissions in the last 90 days (RR 1.63, 95% CI 1.33 to 1.99) and ED visits in the last 2 weeks of life (RR 1.27, 95% CI 1.10 to 1.47).

Conclusions: Expanding community nursing could reduce acute hospital use at the end of life and improve quality of care.