While the new Scottish government strategy to improve palliative care across the country has been welcomed, the sector has called for greater investment and sustainable funding.
The Scottish government has launched a new strategy to improve palliative care across Scotland, which has been broadly welcomed by the sector.
The new strategy is a five-year plan produced in partnership with NHS Scotland, charities, health and social care professionals, and people with experience of palliative care services.
Measures include better integrating specialist palliative care into hospital and community services, improving public information about living with life-shortening conditions, death, dying and bereavement support community-led networks to help people talk openly about these issues, and the launch of a new Scottish Palliative Care Learning Hub to strengthen training and education.
“This strategy is rooted in the voices of people with experience of palliative care, alongside the expertise of professionals, carers, and the third sector. Working in partnership, we hope to ensure that palliative care is compassionate, person-centred, and available to all who need it,” said Jenni Minto, minister for public health and women’s health.
A turning point
The new care strategy was cautiously welcomed by the sector.
“The care and support received by people living with serious illness or approaching the end of life matters enormously to everyone at some point,” said Mark Hazelwood, chief executive of the Scottish Partnership for Palliative Care.
He hopes that the new strategy will deliver a step change in understanding and would lead to the recognition that palliative care is not a niche activity but rather “a major thread running through the current challenges and opportunities for Scotland’s health and social care system”.
Jacki Smart, chair of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group, said that she hoped the strategy marked a “turning point” with meaningful improvements to access, equity and long-term sustainability of palliative and end-of-life care across the country.
Caution came from Helen Malo, senior policy and public affairs manager at Hospice UK. Although she welcomed the strategy, she said that palliative care required “transformation, not tweaks”.
“We need bold action to drive urgent reforms: investing in palliative care to meet rising demand, expanding community-based services, and reducing avoidable hospital admissions. The government must also deliver on its previous promises of long-term, sustainable funding for hospices, including full parity with NHS pay for hospice staff,” she said.
