Learning about personalised palliative care from PALS submissions
Research type
Research Study
Full title
What can we learn about personalised care from PALS (Patient Advice & Liaison Service) submissions relating to adults who received inpatient hospital care in the last six months of life?
IRAS ID
361707
Contact name
Arjun Kingdon
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Cambridge
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
HVS/2025/4523, University of Cambridge insurance reference number
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 11 months, 31 days
Research summary
Dr Arjun Kingdon is already undertaking an observational study ("PERSPEX"), known as an ethnography, at Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust, examining people’s views and experiences of hospital-based ‘personalised care’ when in the last year of life. This study (IRAS reference number 334362) was approved by Wales REC 4 in October 2024.
To supplement the research team's understanding of patient, lay carer and staff experience in the research site, we hope to generate learning from analysis of textual data from written Patient Advice & Liaison Service (PALS) submissions, i.e. informal concerns, complaints and other feedback submitted to the Trust from 2022-2024, relating to people who are now deceased, where the PALS submission relates to care they received in hospital when they were in the last six months of their life. Owing to these circumstances, it will not be possible to seek consent for these data to be used in research.
These data are routinely collected and stored by the PAHT Patient Experience team. Members of this team will identify data from the target time period and undertake de-identification (i.e. removing or modifying any possibly identifiable data). Once fully anonymised, the data will be passed to the research team for analysis.
The research team will undertake thematic analysis of the textual data, looking for patterns and common or important themes. By comparing these data with data from the PERSPEX study, we will develop a deeper and more rounded understanding of patients' and families' hospital inpatient experiences when they are in the last year of life. These findings will help the research team to develop recommendations for patient-centred hospital palliative care.
REC name
Wales REC 4
REC reference
25/WA/0317
Date of REC Opinion
11 Nov 2025
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion