Yesterday, the UK Department of Health posted its End of Life Care Strategy
- promoting high quality care for all adults at the end of life. Its aim is to provide people approaching the end of life with more choice about where they would like to live and die. It will help more people to die in the setting they choose, mainly at home surrounded by loved ones.
The ten year strategy will particularly focus on:
- Improved community services - asking PCTs, working with Local Authorities, to ensure that rapid response community nursing services are available in all areas 24/7. This will enable more people to be cared for and die at home if they wish
- Workforce training and development - to train health and social care professionals in assessing the needs of patients and carers and providing the best possible quality care
- Development of specialist palliative care outreach services - to encourage PCTs and hospices to work together to develop specialist services in the community, which will support all adults regardless of their condition.
- Setting up a national End of Life Research initiative - to further understand how best to care for those at the end of their lives.
- Quality Standards - to work with SHA Next Stage Review End of Life Care leads to develop quality standards against which PCTs and providers can assess themselves and be assessed by regulators.
The ten year strategy will particularly focus on: