A Primer on Palliative Care on the National Health Service
End of life care - or palliative care - is any sort of health treatment or care that focuses on scaling down the harshness of disease symptoms, rather than endeavoring to check, or reverse progression of the disease. The task is to prevent and palliate the pain while improving the quality of life for people suffering from serious, complex illness.
Even so, not all palliative health care services are identical in the quality they provide, and there has been a lot of rumours (and verified cases) of negligence (and even abuse) taking place in care centres that lead to patients enduring significant pain over drawn-out periods of time. For instance an accusation is made against NHS Palliative Care in Sheffield who are charged with negligence with a particular patient they were caring for, with details of communications with the sufferer’s close relative and the hospital.
Thus one cannot take such care for granted - friends and family of a person going into a hosptial ought to be alert and assure their family member or friend receives professional attention.
If your friend or family member is receiving care via the National Health Service, there’s an NHS complaints procedure one can observe should you wish to make a criticism.
