ABSTRACT
Palliative care now encompasses a wide range of specialist services, but commenced in the 1960s with the development of the modern hospice movement by Dame Cicely Saunders when she founded St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham, London. The number of hospices and specialist palliative care services has increased rapidly since that time. In 1980, there were fewer than 80 in-patient hospices and 100 home support teams. By the end of the millennium this had increased to 212 in-patient hospices comprising 3205 beds, 433 home care and extended home care support teams, and 243 day care centres.1 In addition, there are more than 260 hospitals with palliative care nurses or teams and many offer a shared model of care.
