Sue Ryder Warns Government Must Not Miss “Opportunity” to Transform End-of-Life Care
Sue Ryder’s Chief Executive has urged the new Prime Minister and Health Secretary not to let momentum on palliative and end-of-life care reform stall, warning that a critical opportunity to overhaul the system could otherwise be lost.
Writing in a blog for the charity, James Sanderson said that despite six years of growing attention on the challenges facing palliative and end-of-life care, too many people were still being denied the support they deserved in their final months and weeks of life. With a new Prime Minister and Health Secretary now in post, he said, that momentum “must not stop.”
According to figures cited by Sue Ryder, almost one in three people do not receive the care they need at the end of life, with clear inequalities in access. Ethnic minority groups, patients without a cancer diagnosis, the “oldest old” aged over 85, and people living in rural or deprived areas are all less likely to receive palliative care, the charity said.
The blog also highlighted the continued reliance on hospital care at the end of life, noting that more than 40 per cent of deaths in England currently occur in hospital, despite most people saying they would prefer to die at home. Sue Ryder argued that frequent A&E visits and hospital admissions in the final weeks and months of life are often avoidable with the right support delivered earlier, and that this pattern places unnecessary strain on an already stretched NHS.
While acknowledging recent media focus on the need for greater hospice funding, Mr Sanderson cautioned that funding alone would not be enough. “Simply increasing funding to sustain existing models of care is unlikely to deliver the transformation that is so desperately needed,” he said, calling instead for broader reform of the system that reflects a growing preference among patients to be cared for at home.
To support this, Sue Ryder has proposed a new “ecosystem” for the future of palliative and end-of-life care, designed to strengthen support both in hospitals and closer to home. The proposals include:
• Embedding palliative and end-of-life care professionals within NHS hospitals
• Expanding community-based care through partnership working, round-the-clock telephone support, and increased hospice-at-home services
• Integrating palliative and end-of-life care more closely with neighbourhood health services
The charity said working with government along these lines could help reduce corridor care and emergency hospital admissions, ensure 24/7 support for patients and professionals, increase the number of patients cared for in the community, and reduce inequity in access to high-quality care.
Looking ahead, Sue Ryder pointed to the Government’s forthcoming Modern Service Framework (MSF) for palliative and end-of-life care, due to be published in the autumn, which is expected to set out national standards and goals aimed at improving consistency of care across the country.
Mr Sanderson said the framework “could be transformational” for people with terminal illness, both now and for decades to come, but warned that if the new Prime Minister and Health Secretary allowed the process to slip, the opportunity to fix palliative care provision would be missed. As a first step, he said, the Government must publish the MSF on time.
He added that government must work closely with the palliative care sector to develop new, sustainable models of care that reach more people with the right service, in the right place, and at the right time.
