Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether the NHS Constitution entitles people in England to receive palliative care under the NHS; and who is responsible for ensuring information is available to patients receiving palliative care.

Much of the palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient or community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners as part of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care service. In such services, data are either not available or do not identify palliative treatment. In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide additional support to patients at the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost of palliative care is not available. Furthermore, the commissioning and configuration of National Health Service palliative care services are a local matter and the Department holds no data on the number of beds available either in hospitals or in hospices.

NHS services include the provision of NHS palliative care. England’s NHS Constitution states all patients have the right to be involved in planning and making decisions about their health including end of life care and to be given information and support to enable them to do this.