PACE aims to compare, in six EU countries(BE, UK, IT, FI, PL, NL)

(1) the effectiveness of health care systems with and without form palliative care structures in LTCFs on patient and family outcomes -quality of dying, quality of life- quality of palliative care and cost-effectiveness, by performing a representative cross-sectional study in 48 LTCFs per country to include at least 1.152 deceased residents

(2) the impact of the UK palliative care health service intervention Route to Success on patient outcomes, Family and staff in LTCFs, by performing a controlled cluster trial across the six countries, randomly allocating 25 LTFs to intervention and 24 to control