Dignity in Dying welcomes the Palliative Care Funding Review’s focus on patient choice at the end-of-life, but stresses:

“Steps must be taken to make sure that patients who are hospitalised, either by choice or by necessity, can have as good a death as if they were cared for in a hospice or at home”

An independent review into the current state of end-of-life care in England reported its findings today. The Government initiated Palliative Care Funding Review found that thousands of people are missing out on access to high quality care at the end of life each year. The Review provides an overview of service provision in England, and it also makes recommendations about how we move forward and ensure that we all receive good quality care at the end-of-life.

Davina Hehir, Director of Policy and Legal Strategy at Dignity in Dying said:

“This review focuses on patient need, rather than diagnosis or postcode, which is crucial in ensuring that all people receive good quality care at the end-of-life. The review also sets out provisions to ensure that people have more choice about where they die. We know from a 2008 survey that 65% of adults would prefer to be cared for and die at home (YouGov), however the reality is that significantly fewer have this choice realised.

“Whilst Dignity in Dying supports the principles of the review, end-of-life care in hospitals must not be overlooked. Steps must be taken to make sure that patients who are hospitalised, either by choice or by necessity, can have as good a death as if they were cared for in a hospice or at home.

“The review also makes a recommendation for every Clinical Commission Group to maintain an end-of-life locality register, to form the basis of care-planning and record patient’s preferences for care. These registers, previously proposed in the 2008 End of Life Care Strategy, must be implemented as soon as possible, as they will help to ensure patients’ wishes are respected, and good continuity of care.”

Ends.

Notes to editor:

About Dignity in Dying:

• Dignity in Dying campaigns for greater choice, control and access to services at the end of life. It advocates providing terminally ill adults with the option of an assisted death, within strict legal safeguards, and for universal access to high quality end-of-life care.
• Dignity in Dying has over 25,000 supporters and receives its funding entirely from donations from the public.
• The British Social Attitudes Survey 2010 found that 92% of non-religious and 71% of religious people support assisted dying. This relates to overall support of 82%.

Media Contacts:

For all media enquiries, please contact Jo Cartwright on 020 7479 7737 / 07725433025 or at jo.cartwright@dignityindying.org.uk.