Bill introduced in Lords to improve ‘unacceptably patchy’ palliative care

A bid to improve palliative care for the seriously ill and dying has been launched in the Lords.

Independent crossbencher Baroness Finlay of Llandaff said Britain could be proud of its hospice and palliative care services.

But she warned that provision was “unacceptably patchy” and now was the time to “finally get it right for all”.

Introducing her Access to Palliative Care Bill, Lady Finlay, a former GP with wide experience of palliative care, said: “This is the time to make good care of the dying a given.”

Stories of people dying at home in distress through failures in commissioning had to stop, she told peers.

The Bill would help narrow the “widening gap” in hospice provision by ensuring better co-ordination, education and training.

It also places a duty on clinical commissioning groups in England to ensure sufficient support for people needing palliative care, with access to appropriate pain and symptom control.

Former NHS chief executive and independent crossbencher Lord Crisp welcomed the Bill, saying there were some “absolutely excellent” examples of practice in palliative care but also some awful ones.

Former Tory leader Lord Howard of Lympne, chairman of the umbrella organisation Hospice UK, also backed the Bill, saying it would “help bring about a better death for many people”.

Lord Howard said the concept of a “good death” had been increasingly recognised and the Bill would help towards achieving that objective.

Care provided by hospices was “second to none”, with the UK topping a recent international survey of palliative care provision.

Lord Howard said most people did not want to die and should not have to die in hospital. It would save the NHS valuable money if they could be transferred instead to hospice care, he added.

Former Labour health minister Lord Warner said the Bill would help give people more choice about how to end their life with maximum dignity and tackle “huge geographical variations” in access to palliative care.

Lord Warner, in his first speech to peers since quitting Labour saying the party doesn’t have a “hope in hell” of winning power under Jeremy Corbyn, called for the Bill to be amended to ensure more people could die at home rather than in hospital.

“Allowing more people to die at home will save the NHS money but some of those savings will have to go to boost social care – an area still scandalously neglected by all the political parties,” he said.

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