Ramping up palliative care in Scotland

"More than 10,000 Scots who could benefit from palliative care towards the end of their life die each year without receiving it, a report has suggested."

"Professor David Clark, of Glasgow University, said an estimated 40,000 people in Scotland could benefit from the specialist form of care."

"However, the report, produced for Holyrood's Health Committee, claims about a quarter of the group might not receive it."

"Projections based on data from England suggest an estimated 10,600 people in Scotland die each year without receiving any palliative care."

"It said that "reliable studies" looking at the need for palliative care estimated that "in rich countries around 82% of all people who die would benefit from palliative care" - with this equating to about 40,000 people a year in Scotland."

"The report stated: "In England, slightly less robust estimates have been produced which indicate the numbers that might currently be receiving palliative care."

"These have been used to form estimates of those who might benefit from but are currently not receiving palliative care, giving an estimate for Scotland of 10,600 people who die each year without receiving palliative care."

"Palliative care aims to prevent and alleviate suffering caused by life-limiting illnesses, particularly towards the end of life. The UK was the first county in the world to recognise it as being a specialist field in medicine in 1987." [And many elderly have died/been killed before their time ever since.]

"Duncan McNeil, convener of the Health and Sport Committee, said MSPs had heard "anecdotally there are serious deficits in the quality of palliative care being provided for in Scotland" when they were considering the issue of assisted suicide." [So he is interested in assisted suicide as well as the palliative death pathway? That figures.]

"Deputy convener Bob Doris said: "The provision of end-of-life care is not one that is going to go away as our population ages and more and more people need care at the end of life." [All life ends. It always has. So what difference should an ageing population make? Really what this means is that people are living too long and something needs to be done about it.]

"The Scottish Government is already looking into this area as they prepare to publish their framework for action on palliative and end of life care. We hope that this research and our inquiry findings will provide some helpful insight to this."

"Health secretary Shona Robison said: "I welcome Professor David Clark's contribution to this important debate. This Government is absolutely committed to ensuring that palliative and end of life care is delivered to the highest standards, in every situation, right across the country..."
http://m.stv.tv/news/scotland/1328722-more-than-10000-scots-die-every-year-without-palliative-care/  My 96 year old father died on the morning after his birthday having spent the evening with his family. We were all laughing as he recounted some of his best stories. He passed away peacefully without anybody`s assistance.

Death takes care of itself. It`s the living who sometimes need help.