Response to progress report on end of life care

The Department of Health has published a follow-on report marking the progress made by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People – a collective of 21 organisations including the Care Quality Commission.

The original report, One Chance To Get It Right, was published in June 2014 and was a response to the Independent Review of the Liverpool Care Pathway.

One Chance To Get It Right – One Year On finds that: “The Care Quality Commission has made good progress in meeting the commitments made in One Chance to Get it Right. It has finalised and implemented its new inspection approach which fully incorporates the Priorities for Care and addresses specific issues arising from the One Chance response, such as education and training and advance care planning, in all the main settings where end of life care is delivered.

“A number of inspections have taken place since October 2014. These have identified examples of where care is outstanding, as well as examples of poor care, and set out what action is being taken as a result.”

Commenting on the report, Deputy Chief Inspector of Hospitals, Professor Edward Baker, said: “The CQC has made good progress in inspecting and rating end of life care services since One Chance to Get it Right was published last year.

“During our inspections, we have found some examples of excellent end of life care where the dying person received individual care based on their needs, delivered with compassion and sensitivity by health and care professionals. This needs to become the standard across all health and care services.

“We found variation in the quality of end of life care, which has prompted a thematic review on the inequalities and variation of care, particularly examining why certain groups such as people with a diagnosis other than cancer, people with dementia, people from BAME groups, people who identify as LGBT and people with mental health needs have less than positive experiences.

“The CQC is committed to ensuring the highest quality of end of life care, and we will continue to highlight those services which are not providing adequate care so that improvements can be made.”