A summary reportLink opens in a new window from the UK Commission on Bereavement (UKCB)Link opens in a new window was released earlier this week. Researchers in the UAPC were awarded a small grant from Marie Curie to provide a secondary analysis of the qualitative survey responses to contribute the commission report findings and recommendations.

The UKCB was set up to investigate and better understand the experiences of bereaved people and families, and how support and availability of support can be improved for them. This has become necessary due to the increase in number of people bereaved during the pandemic and the subsequent increased demand for bereavement support services. The UKCB was led by researchers and policy managers at Marie Curie but involved multiple charities, external researchers, and a PPIE advisory group with lived experience.

The report focuses on key challenges for both adults and children when experiencing a bereavement including practical death administration, communication with family and friends, and access to formal bereavement services. The report includes key recommendations for changes in policy and practice about how support for bereaved people could be improved, both now and in the long term.

During the Covid-19 pandemic hospice care across the West Midlands fell below the “gold-standard” despite the best efforts of frontline healthcare professionals. This news has been revealed in a report from the end of life charity Marie Curie, based on research from WMS led by Dr John MacArtney. Read the university's press release hereLink opens in a new window and the full report and films explaining the study and findings hereLink opens in a new window.

During the Covid-19 pandemic hospice care across the West Midlands fell below the “gold-standard” despite the best efforts of frontline healthcare professionals, according to a report from the end of life charity Marie Curie, based on research from Warwick Medical School.

Medics training to become general practitioners reported a significant positive improvement in their mental wellbeing after participating in a specially-designed mindfulness programme, a study from Warwick Medical School researchers shows.

Warwick Medical School authors, Dr Helen Atherton, Dr Jo Parsons and Dr Carol Bryce looked at the rate of missed GP appointments in the UK. Their findings are published in the BJGP and Jo Parsons is also interviewed in a podcast discussing some of the findings and implications of this work.

Missed general practice appointments have considerable time and cost implications for the NHS, and leaves patients with unmet health needs, and potentially delayed diagnoses or medical treatment. This systematic review, entitled ‘Which patients miss appointments with general practice and the reasons why’ updated work conducted in 2003, and aimed to examine the rate of missed booked appointments, which patients are more likely to miss appointments, and some reasons for this. Findings of this review has potential implications for practices in targeting interventions to patients that are at increased likelihood of missing appointments, and in attempting to overcome common reasons that appointments are missed.

More information can be found on the GP Online webpages here.

Hospice care across the West Midlands has received an exciting boost as WMS researchers have received a quarter of a million pound grant to establish better care for terminally ill patients.

Rachel Spencer (GP Academic Clinical Lecturer with UAPC) has been awarded a highly competitive NIHR Advanced Fellowship. This award is for £850,000 over four years and is the largest funding ever to be handled by Coventry and Rugby CCG.

Dr Jean-Pierre Laake, a final year MB ChB student at WMS, who has continued to work as an epidemiologist alongside his studies, is highlighting the need to support good mental health in older adults during the winter months.

A new study by WMS researchers has found that mindfulness could help trainee GPs to build their resilience and reduce burnout, helping to reduce the number of newly qualified GPs leaving the profession.