Professor of Palliative Care, General Practitioner and Honorary Consultant Physician in Palliative Care
M.A., B.M., B.Ch., M.Sc., F.R.C.G.P., F.H.E.A., M.D.
Email: sigb2@medschl.cam.ac.uk | Tel: 01223 763082 | ORCID | Office: East Forvie Building
Background
Stephen’s pre-clinical medical training was in Cambridge and his clinical training in Oxford. He has worked clinically in General Practice for over 30 years and in Palliative Medicine as Honorary Consultant Physician in Palliative Care at the Arthur Rank Hospice for 25 years.
His 2005 Cambridge MD thesis “General Practitioner provision of Palliative Care in the United Kingdom” was awarded the Clinical School’s Ralph Noble prize. In 2006 he was awarded a Department of Health / Macmillan Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship, leading a programme of research “Towards an intervention to optimise Primary Palliative Care: identifying patients and understanding their preferences.”
In 2011 he was appointed HEFCE Clinical Senior Lecturer in General Practice and Palliative Care in the Primary Care Unit. He was promoted to University Senior Lecturer and awarded a University Pilkington Prize for teaching excellence in 2015. He leads the Primary Care Unit’s Palliative and End of Life Care group PELiCam and the teaching of Palliative Care in the Medical School. In 2020 he was appointed Honorary Professor in Palliative and Primary Care at the University of East Anglia Norwich Medical School.
He is Clinical Lead for End of Life Care for the Cambridge and Peterborough CCG, and the CCG’s End of Life Care Data Sharing project. He is Clinical Lead for the recently established NHS England East of England Strategic Clinical Network for Palliative and End of Life Care.
Research Interests
Stephen has worked in Palliative and End of Life Care research for over 20 years. His research focuses on Palliative and End of Life Care in Primary Care, with a particular interest in General Practitioner and District Nurse provision of care, end of life care conversations in cancer and non-cancer illness, decision-making concerning treatment cessation in advanced disease and medical student education in Palliative Care. He led the End of Life Care theme of the NIHR CLAHRC for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough 2008 – 2013, the End of Life Care sub-theme of the NIHR CLAHRC East of England 2014 – 2018. He leads the Palliative and End of Life Care Theme of the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) East of England and co-leads the national cross-ARC PEOLC Collaborative with colleagues in ARC South London.
Teaching
In 2002 he was appointed by the Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine as Specialty Director for Palliative Care: since then he has led a considerable expansion of the curricular time allocated to Palliative Care, which now forms a major component of the Cambridge clinical course and is regularly examined in the medical students’ Finals examinations. He co-leads the Undergraduate Education Forum of the Association for Palliative Medicine and led the 2014 and 2020 revisions of the national curriculum for medical student teaching in Palliative Care.
Selected recent publications include:
Thiemann P, Street A, Heath S, Quince T, Kuhn I, Barclay S (2021). “Prolonged grief disorder prevalence in adults aged 65 and over: a systematic review”. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: e-pub March 2021 doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002845
Pearce C, Wong G, Kuhn I, Barclay S. (2021) “Supporting bereavement and complicated grief in primary care: a realist review”. British Journal of General Practice Open (2021) 0008 doi.org/10.3399/BJGPO.2021.0008
Pearce C, Honey J, Lovick R, Zapiain Creamer N, Henry C, Langford A, Stobert M, Barclay S. (2021). “A silent epidemic of grief”. A survey of bereavement care provision in the UK and Ireland during the COVID-19 pandemic”. BMJ Open 2021; 11: e046872. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2020-046872
Dixon K, Ferris R, Kuhn I, Spathis A, Barclay S. (2021) “Gypsy, Traveller and Roma experiences, views and needs in palliative and end of life care: a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis”. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: 0; 1 – 10 doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002676
Tobin J, Rogers A, Winterburn I, Tullie S, Kalyanasundaram A, Kuhn I, Barclay S. (2021) “Hospice care access inequalities: a systematic review and narrative synthesis”. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: 0 ; 1–10. doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002719
Liddell K, Keene A, Holland A, Huppert J, Underwood B, Clark O, Barclay S. (2021) “Isolating wandering residents in care homes and group homes. Legal issues in England in the context of Covid-19”. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry; 74: 101649 doi.org/10.1016/j.ijlp.2020.101649
Lam J, Cheung C, Chow M, Lapwood S, Barclay S, Wong I (2020). “Transmucosal drug administration as an alternative route in palliative care during the COVID-19 pandemic”. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews; 160 (2020): 234 – 243 doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2020.10.018
Kingdon A, Spathis A, Brodrick R, Clarke G, Kuhn I, Barclay S. (2020) “What is the impact of clinically assisted hydration in the last days of life? A systematic literature review and narrative synthesis.” BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: 11: 68–74. doi:10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002600
Bowers B, Barclay SS, Pollock K, Barclay S. (2020) “GPs’ decisions about prescribing end-of-life anticipatory medications: a qualitative study”. British Journal of General Practice: 70(699): e731 – e739 doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712625
Polak L, Hopkins S, Barclay S, Hoare S (2020). “The difference an End of Life diagnosis makes: qualitative interviews with providers of community health care for frail older people”. British Journal of General Practice: 70 (699): e757 – e764 doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X712805
Johnson H, Yorganci E, Evans C, Barclay S, Murtagh F, Yi D, Gao W, Samson E, Droney J, Farquhar M, Koffman J (2020). “Implementation of a complex intervention to improve care for patients who situations are clinically uncertain in hospital settings. A multimethod study using normalisation process theory”. PLoS ONE; 15(9): e0239181 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0239181
Morgan T, Bharmal A, Duschinsky R, Barclay S. (2020) “Experiences of oldest-old carers whose partner is approaching end-of-life: a systematic review and narrative synthesis”. PLoS ONE: 15(6): e0232401 doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0232401
Antunes B, Bowers B, Winterburn I, Kelly M, Brodrick R, Pollock K, Majumder M, Spathis A, Laurie I, George R, Ryan R, Barclay S. (June 2020). “The changing landscape of anticipatory prescribing practice in community end-of-life care in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic: online survey of healthcare professionals”. British Medical journal Supportive and Palliative Care: paper in press. doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2020-002394
Hopkins S, Lovick R, Polak L, Bowers B, Morgan T, Kelly M, Barclay S (May 2020). “Reassessing advance care planning in the light of covid-19. Focus on creating a shared narrative not recording choices”. British Medical Journal; 369: m1927 doi:10.1136/bmj.m1927
Bowers B, Pollock K, Lovick R, Barclay S (May 2020). “Patient and Public Involvement in general practice research”. British Journal of General Practice: 70 (694): 220-221. doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X709457
Hopkins S, Bentley A, Phillips V, Barclay S (April 2020). “Advance care plans and hospitalised frail older adults: a systematic review”. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: published online 14 04 2020. doi:10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-002093
Bowers B, Pollock K, Barclay S. (April 2020). “Administration of end-of-life drugs by family caregivers during covid-19 pandemic. Doing this safely needs training, support and careful prescribing”. British Medical Journal: 369: m1615 doi: 10.1136/bmj.m1615
Yorganci E, Evans C, Johnson H, Barclay S, Murtagh F, Yi D, Gao W, Pickles A, Koffman J (Feb 2020). “Characterising ‘standard care’ in randomised controlled trials of complex interventions: using a novel multi-methods approach”. Palliative Medicine: e-pub Feb 2020 DOI: 10.1177/0269216320905064
Kassam C, Duschinsky R, Brasset C, Barclay S (Feb 2020). “Knowing everything and yet nothing about her”. Medical students’ reflections on the experience of the Dissection Room. BMJ Medical Humanities: e-pub Feb 2020 doi:10.1136/medhum-2019-011708
Rees-Roberts M, Williams P, Hashem F, Brigden C, Greene K, Gage H, Goodwin M, Sibsbury G, Wee B, Barclay S, Wilson P, Butler C (Nov 2019). “National survey of Hospice at Home services in England: developing a typology of services”. BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care: e-pub Nov 2019 doi:10.1136/bmjspcare-2019-001818