Dying Well Matters

In England, at least £4.5 billion a year is spent caring for people who are at the end-of-life, and while some individuals, particularly those accessing hospice or specialist community and hospital palliative services, receive high standards of care many others do not. Our report, Transforming care at the end-of-life, argues that while there has been a great deal of positive activity following the Department of Health's 2008 End-of-life Care Strategy, there are still too many inequalities in access to support and availability of good quality care.

Our report, which is based on a synthesis of key national reviews and audits published over the past 18 months, supplemented by interviews and discussions, highlights shortcomings and concerns about the large degree of variation in services across the country.

For example, Public Health England's 2013 National Survey of Bereaved Relatives, published in July 2014, found that while 43 per cent of respondents thought care was excellent or outstanding, 24 per cent said it was only fair or poor.1Indeed, co-ordination of care for those who died at home was rated significantly lower in 2013 than the previous year's survey with responses from the three annual surveys suggesting that the overall quality of care has remained relatively static.

Other reviews...