Care of the dying and the NHS: some carers’ views

This is a report of a day of consultation and discussion held in July 2002 at St.Christopher’s Hospice, South London, and organised jointly by the hospice and the National Council for Hospice and Specialist Palliative Care Services (now the National Council for Palliative Care) in response to a request from the Nuffield Trust to gather the views of some carers on care of the dying and the NHS. The meeting was funded by the Trust.

The report is not easy reading for anyone passionately concerned with the quality of NHS care, showing as it does shortcomings and deficiencies of care of the dying in all too stark detail, as told through the eyes of carers who have watched their loved ones die on NHS premises.