A report by the Commons Health Committee has called for improvements to be made to the access available for social care at the end of life. Following the report which claimed there was “unacceptable variation” in the quality of care received across England, Care minister Norman Lamb said the government will now look closely at a policy of free end of life social care for all.
Currently, families seeking free care for a dying relative at home have to go through a complex process of means testing and assessment to identify if they qualify for funded support for end of life care. As a result, more than half of deaths across England still occur in NHS hospitals, despite more than two-thirds of people saying they would prefer to spend their last days at home.
Committee chairwoman Dr Sarah Wollaston MP said: “We must make sure that specialist palliative care expertise is accessible within hospitals and community settings as well as within our hospices."
The committee also suggested that providing free care to patients at home could actually save the NHS money as care for someone in hospital is usually more costly.
The committee’s recommendations gained the backing of Norman Lamb, the coalition Care and Support Minister, who said he wanted to see the next government act as soon as possible. Mr Lamb said; “This is all about achieving a dignified end of life. The great irony is, at the moment we do offer free end-of-life care to people, but only at hospital, which is not where most people would want to be. We will also save a lot of money if we enable people to die at home rather than in hospital.”
At NCFE we welcome the Commons Health Committee’s push for increased access to end-of-life care in homes. Through our close ties to the health and social care sector, we see first-hand the important job those involved in palliative care perform, and the difference access to quality end-of-life care makes to the lives of patients and their families at such a difficult time.
We look forward to continuing to work closely with the health and social care sector to help them meet the demand for well-trained palliative carers. We offer a suite of qualifications which are suitable for anyone currently working in or looking to start a career in end-of-life care.
For more information see our full suite of end of life qualifications.
