Palliative Care Patients Face ‘Postcode Lottery’ as Care ‘Undervalued’
A new report by the Health and Social Care Committee challenges the Government to ensure its forthcoming plans for England’s palliative and end of life care sector lead to lasting improvement, including in services for children and young people.
The Government has said it will unveil plans to reform the palliative care sector later this year. It promises to publish a Modern Service Framework (MSF), providing fresh guidance on how services should be delivered.
The Committee calls for the MSF to continue specific standards for how children’s, babies’ and young people’s palliative care should be provided; the need for 24/7 services throughout the country; and a plan to strengthen the workforce of specialist doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
The recommendations in this report (summarised below) build on the work of the Committee’s Independent Expert Panel (IEP), which last year gathered evidence on weaknesses in the sector. The IEP’s evaluation revealed an understaffed workforce, impacts felt from inadequate social care services, and fragmented services that were hard for patients and families to navigate.
These factors, combined with palliative care being overlooked by local NHS commissioners, and varying levels of need, have led to a postcode lottery in the quality of service across England, the IEP found.
Health and Social Care Committee Chair Layla Moran MP said: “It feels unthinkable that specialist care services for those who are close to passing away are somehow undervalued in the NHS. And yet that is the heartbreaking reality that too many frightened patients and their families, including of young children, have to encounter during some of their most trying moments, when help is most needed.
“Under questioning about the Government’s plans to drive up standards in palliative care, the Minister’s answers frequently reverted to what may appear in the forthcoming Modern Service Framework and NHS workforce plan.
“It is welcome that this neglected sector is finally getting renewed attention. But this Committee is sceptical of how much store has been set on the MSF, in particular when there has been no indication that additional resources are coming, other than one-off capital investments which will do little to tackle poor recruitment and retention.
“We also say that better commissioning of services could come from improved data gathering and early identification, better guidance from the top and joined-up working with adult social care and local authorities.
“When the MSF does materialise, we will go over it with a fine-toothed comb and hold Ministers and officials to account for how their plans will be put into action.”
