The Government launched a multi-million pound strategy today to support people as they come to the end of their lives and allow more people to die in the setting they choose - at home, surrounded by their loved ones.

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, and Care Services Minister Ivan Lewis announced the new measures to provide better support and care to those who wish to die at home.

People will be given more control over where they die and will be encouraged to make their wishes known. The ten-year End-of-Life Care Strategy for England, which is backed by £286 million in funding, also includes more support for carers, community nurses on call 24/7 in all areas, and better training for staff.

Mr Johnson said: “The most important objective is to ensure that people’s individual needs, their priorities, their preferences for end-of-life care are identified, they are documented, they are reviewed, they are respected and acted upon wherever possible.

Times Archive, 1971: In the last days of life

In a great many cases it is not the will to care at home for the dying member of a family that is lacking but the means to do so

• Letter: Dying on the NHS

• Letter: Hospital care of the dying

• Letter: Health Service care for the dying patient

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• Case studies: Choosing to die at home

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• The last days of life

“That message has to go out everywhere within the NHS and that’s the important starting point for everything else: if you conduct everything you do around these issues on the basis of the individual and their carer, what would they prefer, and then you draw up a car plan for them and put that into force.”

He went on: “You go back to the beginning of the 20th century and people were familiar with death - many people died at home, they died of diseases at a young age.

“When the NHS came along... as a result people die in hospitals whether they want to or not, and sometimes there are issues about how they die in hospitals. But the big issue for us today is to give the choice to everyone.

He said that the Government was putting £286 million into the project over the next three years but complained that some media were refusing to run the story because it was “too depressing for their viewers and listeners”.

Paul Cann, director of policy at Help the Aged, welcomed the strategy. “The need to secure dignity in dying is of critical importance for older people and those who care for them," he said. “For far too long, there has been a presumption that death should be at the convenience of the system, as opposed to respecting the individual wishes of those who are approaching their final days.

“Enhanced support and advice at a local level would greatly assist older people in exercising real choice about where they die. One area which requires particular focus is in the management of pain - Help the Aged continues to hear too many cases of older people left to face death without effective pain management. “We hope that this will be a major focus within this strategy.”

Martin Green, Chief Executive of the English Community Care Association (ECCA) said: “This strategy has the potential to revolutionise end-of-life care and to ensure that all the resources in the system deliver good quality experiences for people at the end of their lives and for those who love, care or work with them.”

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