Patients to get more choice over where they die

LONDON (Reuters) - More people will be able to choose to die at home under a 300 million pound investment in extra community services and nurses, Health Secretary Alan Johnson said on Wednesday.

Most of the 500,000 who die in England each year end their lives in hospital, even though two thirds would prefer to spend their last days with their families in their own home.

The extra funding will help pay for community nurses who will be able to attend those at the end of chronic illnesses.

Johnson told BBC radio the quality of end of life care was variable across the National Health Service and this needed to change.

"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."

"That message has to go out everywhere across the NHS," he said.

He said an extra 286 million pounds of funding would be available over the next three years and he urged local health authorities to use the money to improve palliative care, often provided now by charities.

Medical charity Marie Curie Cancer Care has long campaigned for better end of life care for terminal patients.

A survey for the charity in February found that two thirds of those polled would rather die at home.