End-of-life care: ‘Shortfall in NHS services’

By Nick Triggle

There is a shortage of specialist end-of-life care in England, causing unnecessary suffering, experts say.

ENDOFLIFEPeople dying with the most complex conditions, such as cancer, dementia and heart and liver failure often need support from a range of professionals.

But a report – produced by end-of-life doctors and nurses – said many were going without the help they needed.

As well as being an inefficient use of NHS money, this could be causing greater distress at death, they said.

Specialist end-of-life care requires teams of professionals, including doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and pharmacists to work together to help manage pain and disability in the final year of life and ensure patients are treated with dignity and compassion.

As well as helping to achieve as comfortable a death as possible, the support can also reduce costs to the NHS by keeping people out of hospital, said the report, produced by a host of specialist bodies including the Association of Palliative Medicine and Marie Curie Cancer Care.

‘Paralysis’
Not everyone who dies needs such help as some deaths are sudden or unexpected.

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Palliative care has the ability to save the NHS money and improve the care of patients”

Dr David Brooks
Association of Palliative Medicine
But the ageing population means there is a growing number of people with complex, long-term problems that need carefully managing at the end of life.

The report said it was estimated that between 160,000 to 170,000 people a year were currently receiving specialist end-of-life care.

The groups said this was a “significant” shortfall on the numbers who needed help. It said more than 350,000 people required some form of end-of-life care, the majority of whom would benefit from specialist care.

Dr David Brooks, vice-president of the Association of Palliative Medicine, said: “There is a shortfall in services that needs to be addressed. Palliative care has the ability to save the NHS money and improve the care of patients.”

It comes after there has been mounting concern about one part of end-of-life care, the Liverpool Care Pathway.

Complaints
At the end of last year there were suggestions the regime, which allows doctors to withdraw treatment in the last days of life, was being misused in places.

Relatives of dying patients had complained that their loved ones had been put on the pathway without consent.

Professionals working in the field had agreed to launch a review into how the system was working, but that was then put on hold when ministers said it should be done independently.

That review has yet to start, although the government is expected to announce details of it in the coming weeks.

Dr Brooks said the profession was keen to find out what had gone wrong, but he said the controversy and wait for the review had created a “bit of paralysis”.

“It is important we get this right and tackle what was happening, but there is a little frustration it is taking some time.”

Complete Article HERE!

On The Radio with Chris MacLellan — Tuesday, 01/08/13

I’m delighted to announce that I will be sharing the airwaves with my friend and colleague, Chris MacLellan, from Be A Healthy Caregiver fame.  We’ll be on blogtalkradio Tuesday, 01/08/13 at 1:00pm eastern time and 10:00am west coast time.

Find all the information HERE!

Come and join the conversation; you’ll be so glad you did!

And be sure to visit Chris on his site, The Purple Jacket and follow him on Twitter @TheBowTieGuy.

See Ya Tuesday!

healthy caregiver

Cemetery Art

We haven’t had an edition of our Cemetery Art project for awhile, so let’s remedy that now. Among today’s images are two that could easily be considered erotic art.