New UK legal right to palliative care
3rd March 2022
Cicely Saunders International has welcomed news this week that people in the UK will be given a legal right to specialist palliative care for the first time since the NHS was established in 1948.
The UK Government has promised to back a House of Lords amendment to the new Health and Social Care Bill, requiring every part of England to provide specialist palliative care.
Research carried out by the Cicely Saunders Institute for the charity Marie Curie shows that about 215,000 people a year miss out on end-of-life care and that without intervention this could rise to 300,000 within 20 years.
Professor Katherine Sleeman, Laing Galazka Professor of Palliative Care at the Cicely Saunders Institute said: “It is excellent that the amendment to the Health and Care Bill calling for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) to have a statutory responsibility to commission specialist palliative care services has been adopted by the Government. The NHS was set up to support cradle-to-grave care, and it is shocking that many specialist palliative care services still rely on charity donations to operate. We were delighted that our recent analysis of palliative and end of life care in ICS strategies was used by several peers to support this amendment. “
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a professor of palliative care medicine and member of Cicely Saunders International’s Scientific Expert Panel said: “This change is incredibly important. For the first time the NHS will be required to make sure that there are services to meet the palliative care needs of everyone for whom they have responsibility in an area. People need help early, when they need it, seven days a week — disease does not respect the clock or the calendar.”
The change in legislation will end the “postcode-lottery” in which access to palliative care has been dependent on decisions made by local commissioners within a particular geographic location. You can read more about the variation in access to palliative care in the UK here.
The new legal right to palliative care will require a quantum expansion of palliative care knowledge, skills and resource within the UK’s healthcare system. Cicely Saunders International’s Action Plan for Better Palliative Care sets out evidence-based solutions to providing palliative care for everyone who needs it and is continuing to fundraise for the expansion of palliative care services, skills and training necessary to meet this increased need.