Following the publication of the NHS 10 Year Health Plan for England today, Royal Trinity Hospice Chief Executive Emily Carter said:

"It is really encouraging to see the NHS 10 Year Plan’s focus on delivering more support for people to be cared for at home. As a hospice already providing neighbourhood care, we know that this is where most of our patients would prefer to be, but that too many people end their lives in hospital due to a lack of community health and social care infrastructure.

The number of people dying in the UK is set to grow significantly in the years to come, and this will put pressure on all services supporting people at the end of life to have a dignified, pain-free death. The hospice sector already excels at this, despite the funding crisis the sector faces. We look forward to working with local partners to make the greater collaboration described in the plan a reality for all of the people nearing the end of their lives.

Whilst it is reassuring that hospices feature in part of the new 10 Year Plan, we still await details of how the government plans to address the chronic underfunding of hospices already working at a local level to support patients at the end of their lives."