Palliative Care

Mims Davies Excerpts

Wednesday 4th November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Maria Caulfield]

Absolutely. I am touching on some of the Bill’s highlights, but we also need to incorporate social care, because that is often the kind of support that carers need in order to be able to look after relatives.

The Bill also highlights the fact that medication is not available at all times. I know only too well that if a patient’s pain needs to be better controlled, they can get a prescription but they cannot get the drugs on a Saturday or Sunday or during the night. Once again, they are admitted to A&E for help in managing their pain. That is not acceptable.

Practical solutions are available to enable people to choose where they want to die. I was disappointed by the response of Lord Prior of Brampton in the other place when he dismissed the Bill so easily by saying that we did not need to legislate for good palliative care. I strongly disagree. If we can legislate for a charter of budget responsibility, which I strongly supported because it is important for this country to run a surplus, and if we can legislate to freeze VAT and national insurance because that is also vital to this country, and to charge 5p for every carrier bag, why can we not legislate to provide good palliative care for every person who needs it?

I urge the Minister to consider the Access to Palliative Care Bill, which is currently going through the other place, as a way to improve access to palliative services and to support patients, families and NHS staff.

[Mims Davies (Eastleigh) (Con)]

On legislation, does my hon. Friend agree that it gives us as individuals and families the opportunity to start thinking about the unthinkable, to improve the process and to shape the palliative care we will want in the future?

[Maria Caulfield]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. We need to make death a normal part of life, but until palliative care is available to everyone it will still be seen as something that happens in dark corners in hospitals, when it should be happening at home.

The NHS is supposed to be there from cradle to grave, but this country is not getting death right. People are going abroad to commit suicide because they cannot face a natural death. We are doing something fundamentally wrong. I therefore ask the Minister to consider legislating on access to palliative care. Years of reviews have not solved the problem. With 100% of us facing death, we need to ensure that end-of-life care is treated as a priority.