With an increasingly ageing population, there is more need than ever for social care in communities to support older patients. Currently the NHS is spending around £69 million on this social care for cancer patents alone.
Personally I think it would be very appropriate to provide free care to those nearing the end of their lives. The trouble is at the moment is that around half of these patients die in hospital - the costs of maintenance to the NHS total to large sums.
In a MacMillan Cancer Support survey, 8 out of 10 people would prefer to die in their own home. However from statistical data we can see that many people have it "against their wishes".
Caring for these patients in their community would substantially reduce costs to the NHS from around £685 million to around £340 million a year. In my view it would be morally wrong to have a patients will not fulfilled, however it is disheartening to see that not everyone can be accommodated.
A Department of Health representative has said that "We want to make sure that people nearing the end of their lives can choose where to spend their last days and have more of a say on how they are cared for".
Credit to Nick Triggle (BBC News Health Correspondent) for the original article which can be found here.
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