Palliative Care

Baroness Perry of Southwark Excerpts

Thursday 22nd October 2015 Grand Committee

[Baroness Perry of Southwark (Con)]

My Lords, it is with great pleasure that I offer my support to the noble Lord, Lord Farmer, and thank him for initiating this very interesting debate. Access to the best possible care at the end of life is surely the test of any civilised country and the value it puts on the life of its citizens.

I, too, pay tribute to the splendid work of the hospice movement. My own dear mother died in the Bournville hospice in Birmingham and it was then that I learnt just how important and effective good palliative care can be. Dying without pain and yet retaining full consciousness and the ability to speak to one’s loved ones, as she did, is truly a priceless gift. It gave her peace as she left us and eased the pain of loss for those of us who loved her. As the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of Carlisle said, good palliative care in a Christian hospice such as the one where my mother died deals with much more than physical pain; it deals with the spiritual issues that the dying person is still wrestling with. I also very much welcome the growth of the hospice at home movement and the wonderful work of Macmillan and Marie Curie nurses, which allows people to die with good palliative care at home.

I wonder why the gift of good palliative care is too often denied to those who die in hospital. Too often proper pain relief is not given, or given in such a way that the patient is at best semi-conscious. A death like that lacks dignity and causes lasting painful memories for the bereaved. I cannot see any major obstacles to providing the training and tools for all doctors and nurses, and all hospitals, to raise standards of care for the dying. It is a case of asking not for more money but simply for a change in training and in attitude.

I understand what my noble friend Lord Ribeiro said. Hospitals are about saving lives, not losing them, and in the long term I would love to see a move away from dying in hospital to dying at home or in a hospice. But in the mean time it is apparent that many of us will end our lives in hospital. So while we work to change this, we cannot delay the work of changing the experience now of those who will still face a hospital death.

I have been very moved by the briefing that most of us have received about the needs of children with fatal illness. I have huge respect for the doctors and consultants who must deal daily with such tragic cases, and they need every ounce of support and training to enable them to give the best care to their young patients. Every paediatrician and paediatric nurse should have specialised knowledge of palliative care as, sadly, all will encounter children who cannot be cured. I know that for many who work with children, death is seen as a dreadful failure. It can, however, be turned into a triumph of the human spirit if those last months and days are made into a rich, pain-free cherishing of a young life, every moment of which, to parents and siblings, is, and remains to the end, infinitely precious.

The way in which we die is perhaps the most important part of the way we live. I hope that every action of those who run the health service and the related care services will demonstrate the value of every life to the end. No better way can be given than by ensuring that universal palliative care is available to all.