Royal Trinity Hospice has welcomed the Government’s response to “What’s Important to Me: a review of choice in end of life care”. However the hospice argues that greater commitment is needed to challenging the taboo that persists around death and dying across our society.

The Government’s response sets out a new national commitment for end of life care based on all dying people, without exception, receiving high quality care tailored to their needs and wishes.

Key commitments include the need for honest discussions leading to informed choices; personalised care plans that can be stored online for easy access by all care professionals; a known point of contact for help and advice 24/7; and involving families and carers where appropriate in conversations and decisions about end of life care.

Dallas Pounds, Chief Executive at Royal Trinity Hospice, said: “We welcome the commitment from Government to make end of life care a national priority across health and social care.

We hope this renewed national focus will support everyone to talk about and plan for dying, and raise awareness of services that are available across the country

We are delighted to see a commitment to supporting health and care staff to have honest conversations with people approaching the end of their life and their loved ones.

However we do believe more needs to be done to challenge the taboo around death and dying across society.

Only when everyone, professionals and public alike, are confident in having those difficult conversations will people be able to effectively talk about and plan for the end of life.”

The Choice Review was commissioned by the coalition government in 2014 with the remit to provide advice to the Government on improving the quality and experience of care for adults at the end of life, their carers and others who are important to them by expanding choice”. Its report, 'What’s Important to Me', was published in February 2015.