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BHF - Palliative care recommendations are 'important first step'
An independent review into how to fund palliative care has recommended money should be allocated based on individual patients’ specific needs, rather than just their age and type of disease.
The Palliative Care Funding Review was commissioned by the Government in 2010 to help develop a new system of funding based on the needs of patients. The subsequent report has highlighted that someone’s 'phase of illness' – stable, unstable, deteriorating or dying – should be used to help the NHS fund palliative care properly.
The recommended changes have been called a 'per-patient tariff’ and England would be the first country in the world to use the system if the Government adopted the ideas for both adults and children. The report says the changes could save the NHS £180m and cut hospital deaths by 60,000.
This review is an important first step to readdressing the balance so heart patients get the care they deserve
Our associate medical director, Dr Mike Knapton, said: “There are 750,000 people living with heart failure in the UK and they often have a poorer quality of life, more limited access to palliative care services and a worse life expectancy than many cancer patients. This review is an important first step to readdressing the balance so heart patients get the care they deserve based on need, not diagnosis.
“These recommendations now need to be seriously considered alongside the Dilnot report on funding older people's care.”
The BHF is working with Marie Curie Cancer Care and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde on a five-year programme called 'Caring Together' to develop pioneering end of life care for heart failure patients.
