Source · Select Committees · Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 18
18
Not Addressed
Paragraph: 306
No current medical intervention can manage every symptom or pain for terminally ill patients.
Conclusion
We have heard a lot of evidence around the importance of a “good death” for both the person managing their terminal diagnosis, and their loved ones. Suffering, pain and managing a terminal diagnosis will be a subjective experience, unique to the person experiencing them, and although there may be in the future, there is not currently a medical intervention available to manage every symptom or pain.
Government response summary AI-generated
The government's response broadly discusses its efforts in palliative and end-of-life care and the UK's leadership, but does not specifically address the committee's observations on the subjective nature of a 'good death' or the current limitations of medical interventions for all symptoms.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Paragraph Reference:
306
Government Response
Not Addressed
HM Government · verbatim extract
Not Addressed
Therefore, much of the report focussed, quite rightly, on palliative and end-of-life care provision and with that in mind this response will primarily focus on that too. The Department has already introduced a number of significant changes to improve the provision of palliative and end-of-life care in England in recent years, which we have highlighted in response to the individual recommendations. Additionally, the UK has been considered an international leader in palliative and end-of-life care for a number of years and, in a recent Cross-Country Comparison of Expert Assessments of the Quality of Death and Dying, the UK was ranked no. 1 of 81 countries for high- quality end-of-life care. However, with an increasing ageing population and a growing number of people living and dying with multiple long-term conditions, there is more work to be done.
Read the full response on Parliament ↗