Barchester News

Good end of life care 'needs flexible support'
11/12/2008
Resources need to be given to caring services instead of curative ones in order to ensure that more people have a choice in where they die, it has been argued.

Resources need to be given to caring services instead of curative ones in order to ensure that more people have a choice in where they die, it has been argued.

Peter Beresford, writing for the Joe Public blog with the Guardian, said that the reality of most people dying in hospitals was one that very few actually wanted, highlighting the role of palliative care in the comfort of a person before they pass away.

He also said that although the hospice movement continued to go from strength to strength in terms of its relations with the general public, most were still "chronically underfunded".

Mr Beresford continued: "Good deaths at people's place of choice, whether at home or not, are unlikely to become more common until health and social care services and budgets are reconfigured from acute to longer term support; from curative to caring."

The National End of Life Care Programme is the programme run by the government which aims to improve a good quality of care for those wanting to live and die in their place of choice.

Please click here for advice about the right type of care.