Help the Hospices welcomes the government’s intention to clarify patients’ rights in the new NHS Constitution, but would still prefer that the Constitution took a much more explicit account of the pledges it itself made to patients in its End of Life Care Strategy, published in July 2008.
However, we are pleased the Constitution takes into account its application towards the end of people’s lives, when there is little prospect of cure. We welcome the inclusion of the right to information so that patients can exercise their right to choose. We also welcome the government’s reference to treatment with dignity and respect in accordance with human rights. The right to appropriate care and support at the end of life, and to dignity and respect, is indeed a human right.
In practice, it remains to be seen what impact the Constitution will have on End of Life Care in England as a whole.
The proposed NHS Constitution sets out ‘NHS Values’, including the ‘principles the NHS is based on, what it stands for and what it should live up to’. It also outlines what patients, public and staff are entitled to.
The NHS Constitution requires all independent and third sector providers of NHS services in England to take account of it. Hospices provide a range of NHS-commissioned services.
