Professor Irene Higginson, Director of the Cicely Saunders Institute and Associate Editor of Supportive and Palliative Care, spoke today of the recent promising trend of more cancer deaths occurring at home in the UK.

In an interview with Radio 4’s Today programme, Professor Higginson highlighted the findings of a recent report which indicates that the long term trend in institutional dying is showing the first signs of reversal since 1974. She cited a “small but significant shift” in the proportion of cancer deaths which occur at home – up from around 22% to about 27% in recent years. The change is significant because whilst a large proportion of people suffering from long-term illness  in the UK express a wish to die at home, an overwhelming majority continue to die in hospitals and hospices. However, the increase seems to be limited only to cancer deaths, with the number of people dying at home from chronic, non-cancer conditions limited to only one in six.

Prof. Higginson also highlighted the extent of regional variation in the country, with some areas having rates of home death as high as 50% and others as low as 10%. When asked about the cause of this large disparity the Professor of Palliative Care responded that there exists a “complicated web of factors” which decide whether someone is able to die at home, some cultural and some relating to services, but that there were also other influences which are not yet fully understood and should be the topic of future research.

Furthermore, Prof. Higginson underlined the importance of effectively training medical professionals so that they are able to ask people about their end-of-life preferences, as this is an important factors in deciding where people will die.

If you’re living in the UK, the interview is available to listen to here for the next week or so, starting at around 53’30”.