Many patients want to spend their last days at home with their families and friends. Scottish Government strategies are increasingly making that possible. From ISD today:
- In 2018/19, there were 53,168 deaths in Scotland excluding those where an external cause such as unintentional injury was recorded. For these individuals, 89.2% of their last six months of life was spent either at home or in a community setting, with the remaining 10.8% spent in hospital. This is equivalent to an average of 20 days in hospital in the six months prior to death.
- Over the past nine years, the percentage of time spent at home or in a community setting has gradually increased from 85.3% in 2010/11 to 89.2% in 2018/19.
Talking-up Scotland 