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How does palliative care fit into national health spending? A secondary analysis of trends in long-term healthcare expenditure in the United Kingdom
De-Alker E, Alcock A, Murtagh FE.. medRxiv, 2026-01-24
Topic: Health services, long-term care and technology
Results Real-terms UK government spending on health-related long-term care grew by £6.4 billion (22.9%) between 2013 and 2022, from £27.9 to £34.3 billion. Our results take into account health-related social care spending, which forms a key part of care for people living with illness, including those receiving palliative care services. This paper adds to ongoing policy discussions surrounding this issue, highlighting the discrepancy between growth in public sector spending on health-related long-term care and overall spending on specialist palliative care services (from governmental and non-governmental sources).
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APA 7th
De-Alker, E., Alcock, A., & Murtagh, F. E. (2026). How does palliative care fit into national health spending? A secondary analysis of trends in long-term healthcare expenditure in the United Kingdom. medRxiv. https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.23.26344608
Vancouver
De-Alker E, Alcock A, Murtagh FE. How does palliative care fit into national health spending? A secondary analysis of trends in long-term healthcare expenditure in the United Kingdom. medRxiv. 2026. doi:10.64898/2026.01.23.26344608.
BibTeX
@article{dealker2026-5e147728,
author = {De-Alker, E. and Alcock, A. and Murtagh, F. E.},
title = {{How does palliative care fit into national health spending? A secondary analysis of trends in long-term healthcare expenditure in the United Kingdom}},
journal = {medRxiv},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.64898/2026.01.23.26344608},
url = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.23.26344608}
}
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
Key findings
- Results Real-terms UK government spending on health-related long-term care grew by £6.4 billion (22.9%) between 2013 and 2022, from £27.9 to £34.3 billion.
- Our results take into account health-related social care spending, which forms a key part of care for people living with illness, including those receiving palliative care services.
- This paper adds to ongoing policy discussions surrounding this issue, highlighting the discrepancy between growth in public sector spending on health-related long-term care and overall spending on specialist palliative care services (from governmental and non-governmental sources).
Study details
- Effect size22.9%; 10.7%; 65.9%
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 16/100
Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. It scored 27 on the same rubric, but non-peer-reviewed sources are capped at 16, so it shows as 16. Scored zero for study design, sample size, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it. We have no data on times cited, citations per year, impact for its field and year, cited by studies here, still being cited, senior author's track record, institution's track record and multi-centre collaboration, so those were left out: it earned 17 of the 62 points we could judge it on, which is 27 out of 100.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 2 / 10 | Tier 4 — not a peer-reviewed journal (medRxiv) |
| Journal's citation record | 0 / 4 | Not a journal article, so the journal's record does not count |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 4 / 10 | Preprint — not yet peer-reviewed. Hosted on a preprint server. |
| How recent | 5 / 5 | 2026 — within 1 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 2 / 3 | Effect reported as a number, without an interval or test |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | — / 7 | No citation count (not found in OpenAlex) — left out of this score |
| Citations per year | — / 5 | No citation count or no year — left out of this score |
| Impact for its field and year | — / 6 | No field-weighted citation impact (OpenAlex has none yet) — left out of this score |
| Cited by studies here | — / 6 | Not yet checked against this library's citation graph — left out of this score |
| Still being cited | — / 4 | No yearly citation counts — left out of this score |
| Senior author's track record | — / 4 | Senior author's record not available — left out of this score |
| Institution's track record | — / 3 | No institution listed in OpenAlex — left out of this score |
| Multi-centre collaboration | — / 3 | Institutions not listed — left out of this score |
| Indexed in PubMed | 1 / 2 | Not in PubMed, but has a DOI |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Points | 17 / 62 | Scored on 12 of 20 parts. We have no data for the rest, so they are left out: 17 of the 62 points we could judge it on is 27 out of 100. |
| Total | 27 / 100 | Capped to 16 because this is not a peer-reviewed article. |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
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