Marie Curie response to draft NICE guideline to support doctors and nurses in providing high quality and compassionate care for people who are dying

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a draft guideline to support doctors and nurses in providing high quality and compassionate care for people who are dying. 

In response to the draft NICE guideline, Professor Bill Noble, Medical Director at Marie Curie, said: “We welcome the publication of the draft NICE guideline to help doctors and nurses identify when someone is dying and to improve the care that they receive in the last few days of life.  We know from our own research, that around 92,000 people a year in England miss out on palliative care, often because healthcare professionals don’t recognise that they are at the end of life. 

“The draft guideline marks an important step forward, and could form the basis of continuous professional development and training for health and social care professionals in recognising and providing care for terminally ill and dying people. Without this kind of training to embed the NICE guidelines, failings in care that were identified in the recent Health Service Ombudsman report will continue and may worsen. 

“We also welcome NICE’s emphasis on research, which highlights serious gaps in the available research in understanding when people are dying and the medication and the care that they need. Just 10p out of every £100 spent on research goes to palliative and end of life care research. This research is important as it can help guide healthcare professionals who look after dying patients but who aren’t specialists in palliative care provide the high quality care that their patients need. 

“With more people dying each year the demand for high quality and compassionate palliative and end of life care will only increase.  The draft NICE guideline is an important contribution towards improving care for the dying in England.  However, to achieve genuine change, this will need to be embedded in continuous professional development and supported by more funding of much-needed research in the area. Without these commitments, we will never achieve the standards of other NHS practice.”

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