NCPC response to Hospice UK report into end of life care priorities

The National Council for Palliative Care has released a response to Hospice UK’s report, which found that 57 percent of Health and Wellbeing Boards do not include the needs of dying adults and children in their key strategies that inform local service planning.

It also found that 27 percent of Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) do not have a strategy for addressing end of life care for adults in their area.

Simon Chapman, director of policy and external affairs, said “End of life care needs to be a priority and it is unacceptable that there are parts of the country where the needs of dying people are not being met. With demand for end of life care set to increase in the coming decade, it has to be a priority for all care providers. We endorse the call for the Ambitions Framework to provide the basis of future developments, and also urge the Government to give its response to 2015 Choices Review.

“Our 2014 report found that only 43 percent of HWB’s include the needs of dying people in their own strategies, so this latest research shows there has been no change in nearly two years. This simply isn’t good enough.”