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Petition title: Don’t let the plan run out for dying people in Wales Text of petition: Every year, thousand of people die in Wales having missed out on palliative and end of life care. The end of life care plan for Wales was working towards fixing this, but in March it’ll come to an end. Right now, there’s no new plan ready to take its place. We urgently need a timeline, funding and staff to deliver a new plan. Don’t let the plan run out with no replacement. Please sign today and help us make sure families in Wales aren’t left in the lurch. |
The Petitions Committee has received the ‘Don't let the plan run out for dying people in Wales’ petition from End of Life charity Marie Curie and the Motor Neurone Disease (MND) Association. The petition calls for a new strategic plan for palliative and end of life care.
The Welsh Government’s current Palliative Care and End of Life Care Delivery Plan comes to an end on 31 March 2022. The plan, along with the £2m funding that supports its implementation, was extended to March 2022 due to the pandemic.
The Welsh Government Programme for government gives a commitment ‘to focus on end of life care’. However, Marie Curie state that “despite a commitment from Welsh Government to prioritise care for the dying, Wales is now set to be without a plan for those people for the first time in a decade, as a replacement is yet to be published”.
‘A Healthier Wales’ is the Welsh Government’s response to the Parliamentary Review of the long-term future of health and social care in Wales. It sets out that a National Clinical Framework, underpinned with quality statements will guide the development of clinical services in Wales. The current delivery plans for major conditions will be replaced with quality statements that set out the Welsh Government’s policy intent. The quality statements will be underpinned by NHS implementation plans, supported by clinical networks and the NHS Executive.
The Welsh Government has published a quality statement for cancer, a quality statement for heart conditions, a quality statement for stroke and a quality statement for care of the critically ill.
In her letter to the Chair of the Petitions Committee, the Health Minister Eluned Morgan states:
Quality statements set out the vision for specific clinical services and are underpinned by more detailed service specifications. They describe the outcomes and standards we expect to see in high quality, patient focussed services and are intended to guide what quality attributes key clinical services should aspire to and help inform the local Quality Assurance Cycle.
Unlike the delivery plans that predate them, quality statements are not intended to prescribe how services are to be organised and delivered. Health boards and trusts are the ones that plan and deliver services. Quality statements set out our policy intent and what good services look like. They set much clearer expectations for the system to respond to.
The Health Minister’s letter to the Petitions Committee Chair confirms that a quality statement for end of life care will be published. The Minister states “the Quality Statement for End of Life Care is progressing well and is being co-produced with statutory and voluntary stakeholders. It will be consulted upon with wider stakeholders over the next few months and is expected to be published in the summer”.
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