Marie Curie's response to the Government’s Review of Choice at the End of Life

Dr Jane Collins, Chief Executive for Marie Curie, said: 

“Today’s commitments set out in the response to the Review of Choice at the End of Life are ambitious and show a desire to address the variation in end of life care that we know exists, however government policy has previously promised improvement and not delivered. A new report today by Sheffield Hallam University   and funded by Marie Curie highlights that despite the huge number of policy proposals to improve end of life care in England, there has been very little action in achieving high quality care and choice across the board for people affected by terminal illness. 

“Given the historical lack of evaluation and accountability in the area, it is good to see that the Government and NHS England have made the important decision to introduce clear metrics to measure the quality and choice of local end of life care services and to have a stronger role in making sure this happens. 

“With new data showing that the estimated need for palliative care is increasing rapidly  , the government must adequately fund, and accelerate the improvements needed to meet its commitment to deliver excellent end of life care for everyone, seven days a week by 2020.  Without this, even more people will continue to miss out on the care and support they desperately need.”