Our Make End of Life Care Fair campaign has secured a change to the Health and Care Bill that will make it a legal requirement to provide palliative care in every part of England if local people need it.
This means that, when the bill becomes law in a few weeks' time, care at the end of life will be placed on the same footing as maternity services.
It's a huge step forward in making sure all dying people are treated with dignity, care and compassion in their final months, weeks and days of life.
The devastating impact of missing care
If someone can't get the right pain relief or hands-on care when they're dying, it can be devastating for both them and their loved ones.
Joanne and her sister Lyndsey cared for her mum Margaret at home before she died in March 2021 from bladder cancer.
She says her mum suffered, as she didn't get the care or pain relief she needed at the end of her life, and that her whole family felt abandoned by the health and care system.
Joanne Aitken supported the campaign. Her mum, Margaret, didn't get the care or pain relief she needed at the end of her life.
A significant change in support for dying people
Around 215,000 people a year currently miss out on end of life care, a figure that could rise to more than 300,000 in under 20 years if no action were to be taken to address it.
But today, the Government has changed the proposed bill to include a requirement for Integrated Care Boards to "commission such services or facilities for palliative care (including specialist palliative care) as they consider appropriate for meeting the reasonable requirements of the people for whom they have responsibility."
The call for this change was spearheaded by Baroness Ilora Finlay and was also supported by Hospice UK, Sue Ryder, Together for Short Lives and Alzheimer's Society.
Marie Curie Nurse Precious Obidimalor, Baroness Findlay and Joanne Aitken
Looking to the future
This isn't the end of the campaign. There will be work to do to make sure Integrated Care Boards are acting on this new legal requirement by commissioning the end of life care that people with a terminal illness need. We'll keep campaigning to make this happen.
Everyone at Marie Curie would like to say a huge thank you to the thousands of people who supported the campaign by signing the petition, emailing their MP and sharing their loved ones' experiences of missing out on care at the end of life.
