Marie Curie responds to Health and Care Bill

The Government has today published a new Health and Care Bill, confirming its intention for Sajid Javid to press ahead with planned reforms first set out by his predecessor as Secretary of State, Matt Hancock.

Speaking on the day of the Bill's publication, Ruth Driscoll, Marie Curie Head of Policy and Public Affairs, England, said:

"We welcome plans for more joined up health and social care but urgent action is needed to ensure it delivers for people living with a terminal illness and their carers. How we treat people at the end of life is a fundamental mark of a civilised society but far too often people living with terminal illness and their families do not receive the care and support they need. The Health and Care Bill must not be a missed opportunity to deliver a better end of life experience for all.

"The last year has been a stress-test for end of life care, with three quarters of bereaved carers reporting their loved one did not get all the care and support they needed at home and nearly two thirds said that their loved one's pain was not fully managed. 100,000 more people a year are expected to die in 20 years' time and more than two-thirds of us express a preference to being at home at the end of life. Achieving this in practice will depend on much more than the measures on the face of this Bill. It needs strengthening to ensure the needs of dying people in the future are met.

"The proposed new duty to promote patient choice about services and treatment is welcome but does not go far enough. We want everyone at the end of life to have the right to be offered a conversation about what matters most to them and to have their needs and wishes responded to by everyone involved in their care.

"We are also still waiting for the Government to finally grasp the nettle and deliver a sustainable solution on social care funding. 'Discharge to assess' proposals in the Bill will make it quicker and easier for dying people to get home from hospital but this needs to be accompanied by an increased resourcing of services in the community and a more sustainable and resilient funding model for palliative care to ensure people's needs are met at home now and in the years to come."