NEW guidance from health officials designed to improve end-of-life care has been welcomed in the district.

The draft guidelines from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) published yesterday follow the scrapping of the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway last year.

They aim to provide guidance around clinical care in the last days of life in its place, including a series of recommendations, such as:

* listing signs and symptoms that can help doctors and nurses recognise when a person is nearing death;

* promoting shared decision making; encouraging people who are in their last days of life to drink fluids if they wish and are able to;

* and that people who are dying and their families should be fully involved in decisions about medicines for managing symptoms in the last days of life.

Professor Bill Noble, medical director at Marie Curie, which runs a hospice in Maudsley Street, Bradford, said: "We welcome the publication of the draft NICE guideline to help doctors and nurses identify when someone is dying and to improve the care that they receive in the last few days of life.

"We know from our own research, that about 92,000 people a year in England miss out on palliative care, often because healthcare professionals don’t recognise that they are at the end of life.

"The draft guideline marks an important step forward, and could form the basis of continuous professional development and training for health and social care professionals in recognising and providing care for terminally ill and dying people."

Prof Noble added: "We also welcome NICE’s emphasis on research, which highlights serious gaps in the available research in understanding when people are dying and the medication and the care that they need. Just 10p out of every £100 spent on research goes to palliative and end of life care research.

"This research is important as it can help guide healthcare professionals who look after dying patients but who aren’t specialists in palliative care provide the high quality care that their patients need."

Elaine Hill, manager at Bradford's Marie Curie hospice, said the guidance clarified what was already being carried out at the hospice, which ensured that the patient was at the centre of decisions around their own care.

She said it was important that all health staff were trained to ensure the guidelines are implemented and welcomed the emphasis by NICE on the importance of further research into palliative care.

"There now has to be some way of auditing how this is implemented into the healthcare system," she added.

The Liverpool Care Pathway, which recommended the withdrawal of treatment, food and water from some sedated patients in their final hours or days, was phased out after a Government-commissioned review found serious failings in how it was being implemented.

The draft guidance is open for consultation for six weeks, before the final guideline is published for NHS use.

Marie Curie has information available on its website about end-of-life care and how a care plan can be prepared. Staff are available to give advice over the telephone and there is a booklet that can be filled in to ensure care is planned in advance.