The right to Palliative Care has been raised again at the House of Lords as the Palliative Care Bill makes its second reading. Introduced by Baroness Ilora Finlay, the bill entitles everyone to high quality care at the end of their life, regardless of geographical location.
The bill will also include a duty placed on all clinical commissioning duty groups in England to provide access to pain and symptom control around the clock, specialist consultant and better training for staff.
The notion is backed by Marie Curie which estimates around 110,000 people miss out on the palliative care they need every year. The charity says dying people should have the right to access specialist end-of-life care seven days a week.
In its poll of more than 2,000 adults, the charity found 86 per cent agreed that terminally ill people should have the right to high quality care no matter where they live. Current figures suggest that only 21 per cent of hospital trusts in England is providing face-to-face palliative care seven days a week.
In the survey 87 per cent of people said those who are terminally ill should be able to access pain relief around the clock and 85 percent thought they should be able to access such support at home. Just 14 per cent said the Government should not be expected to invest more in training NHS and social care staff to care for dying people. Although the outcome of the bill remains to be seen the issue has deservedly been given due parliamentary time and attention.
