Social care should be free at the end of life

16 Mar 2015 02:45 PM

In a report published yesterday, the Health Select Committee looks at the state of end of life care since the independent Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway, chaired by Baroness Neuberger, and found great variation in quality and practice across both acute and community settings. It makes a number of recommendations for improvement, and in particular recommends that social care should be free at the end of life.

The MPs’ conclusions were:

Chair's comments

The Chair of the Committee, Dr Sarah Wollaston MP, said

"The care that people receive at the end of their lives has a profound impact not only upon them but also upon their families and carers. At the most difficult of times, their experience will be made worse if they encounter poor communication and planning or inadequate professional expertise. There are unacceptable levels of variation in the care that people receive and this needs to be addressed so that high quality end of life care is available to everyone regardless of their age, medical condition or where they live. We must make sure that specialist palliative care expertise is accessible within hospitals and community settings as well as within our hospices"

Background

The Five Priorities for Care are that, when it is thought that a person may die within the next few days or hours

Further information