Heather Bellamy spoke with CARE about the importance of the new Palliative Care Bill to make sure everyone has access to quality end of life care.

We know that assisted suicide is not going to go away. There have been persistent attempts in the last decade to try and introduce and liberalise the current law and make it permissible for doctors to assist patients to die. One of the great dangers is that if we don't take this proactive step of improving the provision of palliative care, it will add to the sense that we need an alternative. It would be a tragedy if the alternative that was then accepted was some form of assisted suicide.

It's also worth stressing that during the debate and credit where credit is due, both those who are advocating for assisted suicide and those who are against assisted suicide, both groups were absolutely clear that the provision of palliative care and making that provision more readily available is a good and a right thing. So there's clear will in the country for this to happen and it would be good if the Government would listen to that and respond accordingly.

Heather: So is that the end of the Bill now?

James: No it's not the end of the Bill. Baroness Finlay will continue. It may well be that she secures a committee day for the Bill where her legislation as it currently is will be scrutinised in a line by line basis. The advantage of that is it gives further opportunities for a debate to be had and for awareness to be raised and for the Government to listen again. At that point they will have to listen a second time and it may be, it doesn't happen often, but it may be that they shift somewhat. And of course the Government may decide off their own back in the future to introduce some form of regulations, to introduce some kind of funding that will improve the provision of palliative care and we as an organisation will be urging them to do so.

Heather: And what are their reasons for not wanting it at this stage?

James: The answer that was given was a fairly complicated and convoluted answer. It was all to do with improving the current structures and using regulations rather than a new piece of legislation.

The problem with doing that, is when you use regulations that's not as strong and it's not as clear and usually it's more complicated than if you have a brand new piece of legislation.

So their main reason seemed to be that they didn't think primary legislation, that is a new law, was the right way and that they wanted to work with health boards and hospices and healthcare professionals and simply improve education, but not on a statutory basis, so not enshrined in law. That's fine if that is indeed exactly what they then go on to do. The reason why this Bill was introduced was because it is by far the most effective way of improving access to palliative care. So while we accept and welcome the Government's commitment to making sure palliative care is more accessible, they are missing the point in that they haven't seen this Bill as the right way to do that and we think that's a mistake.