Marie Curie calls for urgent action to make end-of-life care accessible 24/7
Marie Curie has called for urgent action to resolve dangerous gaps in out of hours palliative care across England. The charity is calling on the government to make palliative and end-of-life care accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, following the publication of its new report. The night times are frightening: gaps in 24/7 community care for people at the end of life, is based on Freedom of Information requests submitted to all 42 Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England. The requests revealed:
- Just 2 of the 42 ICBs in England have a 24/7 Urgent Community Response service running across their entire catchment.
- Only 7 have a dedicated 24/7 single point of access phoneline for palliative care despite this being recommended as a minimum service requirement by NICE and DHSC for nearly two decades
- 2 in 10 advice lines are only available for healthcare professionals, not for patients and families.
- In some areas, a designated phone line was only available to patients already known to palliative care services.
Marie Curie's recommendations include adding a new "palliative care option" to NHS 111 and prioritising palliative care in the new NHS 10 Year Health Plan.
Toby North, Marie Curie, head of public affairs said: "By ensuring that these essential palliative and end of life care services are available using one, easily available phone line, like NHS 111, we can help to prevent people with a terminal illness entering a crisis at the end of their lives that is deeply distressing for them and their families, and expensive for the NHS."
Find out more about the research on the Marie Curie website here.