Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what number and proportion of NHS hospitals provide face-to-face palliative care seven days a week.
According to the second round of the National Audit of Care at the End of Life 2019/2020, which was conducted in 2019, 99% of participating hospitals reported that they had access to a specialist palliative care service. More than a third of participating hospitals or 36% reported this to include a face-to-face specialist palliative care service available eight hours a day, seven days a week and 86% of participating hospitals reported having access to specialist palliative care service by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week.