A start to improving end of life care would be to strengthen the existing care workforce
THE debate surrounding assisted dying due to the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in the UK has inadvertently distorted public understanding of how most people die. Death is inevitable, and for most people, it occurs in old age, at the end of a natural lifespan.
Each year, around 670,000 people die in the UK, nearly two-thirds of whom are aged over 75 and most have multiple long-term conditions and/or frailty, rather than a single condition.
The majority of people who die do not have contact with specialist palliative care services, being cared for instead by the generalist health and social care workforce and by specialists in older people’s care. A first step to improving end of life care for all would be to strengthen the existing workforce caring for older people.
The forthcoming 10 Year NHS plan and spending review provide an opportunity to address this. Our health and care system needs to support people with good care right to the end of life.
PROFESSOR JUGDEEP DHESI
President of the British Geriatrics Society and consultant geriatrician