End of life care is ‘on the brink’, campaigners claimed today, reporting that thousands of people are suffering poor care.
A report, published today, shows that 48,000 people had poor care in the final three months of their lives.
The number represents 10% of people who died, says the report from a partnership of seven charities, which highlights widespread failures in care for dying people.
The report, On the Brink: The Future of End of Life, has been jointly produced by the Care Cicely Saunders Institute, Hospice UK, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Cure, Motor Neurone Disease Association, National Council of Palliative Care, and Sue Ryder, and is based on responses from relatives and carers collected by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).
It reveals that some people at the end of life are unable to get access to social care for help with everyday tasks such as washing and changing clothes, that many families have no professional advice on how to care for their dying relative, and that lack of support for people at home is putting extra pressure on an already overstretched NHS.
They estimate that people who die in hospital collectively could spend 2.9 million days in a hospital bed at the very end of their lives each year, but argue that shifting care out of hospitals will be better for people at the end of life and more cost effective.
However, the right support needs to be in place at home and in other settings to enable this to happen, say the charities, which are urging the government to adopt the recommendations of the landmark independent review of choice at the end of life, which was published a year ago today.
Speaking on behalf the coalition of charities, Lynda Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: “This is an astonishing and dismaying number of people being without the care and support they deserve in their final days.
“No relative or carer should be left feeling that their loved one had experienced poor care at such an important and precious time. It is unacceptable that lasting memories are being tainted by pain being poorly managed.
“People at the end of life should be given choice over important issues such as where they spend their final days, and sadly we know that this isn’t always the case. Too often we hear of people being marooned in hospital, because they are not getting the right care at home. Nobody wants to see this happen as it is an appalling situation for the individual and puts strain on the health service.”
“A review of choice at the end of life was published last year which set out in detail what needs to be done to improve end of life care. The government in England must now respond to this and commit to improvements in end of life care, without immediate action people will continue to die in distress.”
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