NHS end of life care ‘improving, but still flawed’

The standard of care provided to dying patients by the NHS is steadily improving, but key issues still remain.

This is according to the new End of Life Care Audit from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), which has shown there has been steady progress in the provision of palliative care since the previous audit carried out in 2013 and published in 2014.

Specifically, there have been improvements made in terms of recognition that patients are dying, the provision of holistic assessments of care, the amount and quality of communication with patients and loves ones, and in the control of symptoms.

However, problems still remain in terms of the provision of palliative care services around the clock and throughout the week, while the audit also showed that some hospitals are performing well in many areas, but not in others. 

Dr Kevin Stewart, medical director of the RCP's clinical effectiveness and evaluation unit, said: "We are disappointed that there are still major deficiencies in the provision of specialist palliative care at nights and weekends by many trusts. Patients and their families deserve the same level of service whatever the day of the week."

This is the first audit to be carried out since the abolition of the previous Liverpool Care Pathway approach to palliative care, which was criticised as a "one-size-fits-all" methodology.