Marie Curie responds to Hospice UK report into end of life care priorities

Scott Sinclair, Head of Policy & Public Affairs, England for Marie Curie, said:

“Today’s report highlights an absurd situation - that not all CCGs and Health and Wellbeing Boards in England have strategies in place on how to deliver care to people who are dying.  Everybody dies and everybody should be able to expect well-planned, high quality care from the NHS while they are dying. That so many CCGs and Health and Wellbeing Boards are not addressing this issue while the number of people dying each year is growing and demand for palliative care is increasing is deeply worrying. The whole NHS should be making changes now to cope with increased demand for palliative care in the future. Yet large parts of the NHS are not even thinking about dying people or how to care for them.

“This reveals a flaw in NHS England’s strategy to be ‘hands-off’ with CCGs and their strategic priorities. Death and dying are universal. The NHS has a responsibility to care for people from the cradle to grave. No part of the NHS should be able to abstain from planning care for people who are dying. There is a risk that without proper plans in place, the NHS will start to fail dying people and their families in certain areas, leading to people dying with uncontrolled pain and other symptoms, leaving families devastated and with prolonged grief and feelings of guilt. NHS England needs to take greater control of CCGs and ensure that the NHS is planning properly for how to care for dying people across the whole of England.”