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Prof Edwin Pugh, Consultant in Palliative Medicine and Trustee of After Sunday, has requested that this be made available on the After Sunday website. If you can find time to complete the questionnaire, please do so as your feedback will be most valuable.

 

North easterners are being asked to tackle a taboo and talk about death as the region launches the UK’s first ever charter on end of life care.

The pioneering charter sets out proposals for the kind of care and support which people who are dying, their families and carers, can expect. Once agreed, it will guide those who plan and provide end of life care or support.

NHS North East has worked with a range of partners across health, social care and voluntary sectors, plus patients and carers, to produce A Good Death charter. A public consultation on the charter will run until December. It aims to gather the region’s views and start a discussion about death and dying, an issue which is often avoided and ignored, despite being the one common inevitability we all share.

Professor Edwin Pugh, consultant in end of life care in NHS North East, says: “Death and dying is taboo, its reality is put off until the last minute. We live in an increasingly death-denying society, despite the fact that all of us will die. Death and dying is seen as a medical problem. Almost six in 10 people die in our hospitals, even though most people wish to die in the comfort of their own homes. The launch of this charter is the start of a process to make sure our society, and the support services people rely on during these difficult times, respond with compassion to the needs of those people who are dying and their loved ones. This is not principally about dying – it’s about ensuring we live life to the fullest of our potential, with meaning and value, in whatever time we have.”

The consultation on A Good Death will centre around a questionnaire available at www.agooddeath.co.uk and research will also be carried out by an on street team in towns and cities across the region.

The charter has been developed as part of the regional Better health, fairer health strategy which aims to make the north east the healthiest region in England within a generation.

Professor Stephen Singleton, regional director of public health says: “Everyone should have the right to experience a good death and family members, partners or other carers deserve support and compassion at this time. North easterners can help make this happen by filling in this questionnaire and telling us what they think.”

Feedback will inform the charter and help NHS North East and other partners plan work around end of life care. The findings are expected to be available in late January 2010.

Recent national research has revealed that those who are dying, their families or carers, may not be receiving the end of life care and support they want, because they are not discussing their situation. The research reveals that the north east is the least comfortable region in the UK when it comes to discussing death. It also highlights that north easterners are the least likely to want to know if they are dying and almost two-thirds of us haven’t discussed end of life care plans

For more information on the charter and how to respond to the consultation visit http://www.agooddeath.co.uk/

What are the major challenges for those working in health and how can a faith perspective help?

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