Will the Minister confirm when the supplementary end-of-life quality statement that commits to delivering a more in-depth implementation/action plan will be published, and the expectations that will be placed on health boards to deliver on the aims of this plan?
We are committed to ensuring that anyone requiring palliative and end-of-life care in Wales has access to the best possible care.
The quality statement for end-of-life care is being co-produced with statutory and voluntary sector stakeholders. This includes health boards, NHS trusts, hospices, the health and care inspectorates and patient representatives. A near final draft will be consulted on with wider stakeholders over the next few months and will be published in the summer.
Quality statements set out our policy intent and what good services look like. They describe the outcomes and standards we expect to see in high quality, patient-focused services. We expect health boards and NHS trusts to set out how they will take forward quality statements through their integrated medium term plans (IMTPs). The various national programmes, networks and implementation groups will support the NHS organisations to do so through the development of enabling plans.
In the meantime, the end-of-life care implementation board continues to oversee end-of-life care policy in Wales and is preparing to transition into the new programme board for end-of-life care from 1 July. The work programme of the new board will form the basis of a new end-of-life care action plan, which will be published before the end of the financial year.