Government called to back programme to make dying in hospital last resort

The Government is being called on to back a new programme aimed at reducing the number of people dying in hospitals by utilising alternative care options in hospices, care homes or at home.

According to Help the Hospices, the end of life care charity which has launched the new scheme, too many people are dying unnecessarily in a hospital environment and a number are receiving poor quality care at the end of their lives.

Over 500,000 people die in England every year with around half of those half dying in hospital. The programme aims to reduce this number by at least 50,000 every year through measures such as ensuring people are rapidly discharged from hospital if they no longer need to be there and wish to die elsewhere.

A lack of relevant skills and awareness among healthcare professionals has also been blamed for some of the poor palliative care being delivered to hospital patients.

Lord Howard, chair of Help the Hospices said: “Hospital has become the default option for dying people and for an increasing number of frail elderly people. Hospital should be the last resort at the end of life, not the first one.

“This has resulted in inappropriate and often poor quality care that completely fails to support dying people’s actual needs and deprives them of alternative care options. It also places considerable pressure on the NHS, which is already straining at the seams.”

Help the Hospices want the Government to accept a partnership between the charity and the NHS to fund and run six nationally coordinated pilot projects aimed at reducing unnecessary deaths in hospitals.

Following the completion of the successful pilots, the programme could then be rolled out nationally from April 2017 and save the NHS an estimated £80m.

Lord Howard continued: “Hospices can provide the solution by leading moves to provide and facilitate alternative forms of care, whether through their own inpatient units or working closely with their local hospital to deliver alternative options.

“Supporting the needs of dying people needs to become a much bigger priority, especially as our population grows older, with more people with complex health needs in the coming years.”

Research has shown over 80 per cent of people would rather die in their own homes or in a hospice than in hospital and the charity wants to ensure other options such as providing home based care is always an available option to those who are dying.

Claire Henry, chief executive of the National Council for Palliative Care said:

“We welcome this new initiative by Help the Hospices and share their concerns about the importance of tackling the challenges in care for dying people. Despite some progress, far too many people are still not getting the end of life care and support that is right for them. We only have one chance to get it right for people who are dying, which is why there needs to be a much greater focus on meeting people’s end of life wishes, including by supporting more people to be cared for and die in the community rather than in hospital which for many people isn’t where they want to be.”