Forum on End of Life

Order of Business 12th May, 2010 (edited)

Another area in which we need a debate is on the report from the Forum on End of Life in Ireland. There is a great debt of gratitude owing to the Irish Hospice Foundation for the excellent work it does in hospice-friendly hospital care. I was honoured to be asked to take part in one of the sessions in the forum and the report has been published today. We should read this report and I intend to bring forward a Private Members’ motion on the need to develop hospice-friendly hospital care.

We should consider the statistic that 76% of people die in emergency room settings but 5% of the cases are trauma-related. We are not getting it right if we are to consider people’s aspirations in meeting their end. They want to be able to die at home with all that is necessary if possible. We are not reaching that standard in Ireland. The Irish Hospice Foundation is to be commended for driving us on and we should have a debate on its report.