Meeting of the Parliament 21 December 2023
I note Miles Briggs’s intervention. The care service does not sit within my remit, but I will discuss that with Ms Todd.
The aim is to publish the new strategy for consultation in spring 2024. Marie Curie is a key partner in our strategy steering group, along with the Scottish hospice leadership group and CHAS. We have all agreed a shared aim that everyone in Scotland should receive well-co-ordinated, timely and high-quality palliative care around death and bereavement support, based on their needs and preferences, including support for families and carers.
I appreciate Evelyn Tweed’s comments regarding rural and island areas, given where I live. I know that Marie Curie nurses operate in my constituency, and we need to recognise inequalities across Scotland, as Gordon MacDonald highlighted.
We also have a shared commitment to equitable and timely access to general and specialist palliative care services, as needed by each person of any age living with any illness in all places. As Carol Mochan said, it is about putting the individual at the heart. The key question is how to achieve timely and equitable access.
I am keen that we continue to focus our improvements through the development and delivery of the new palliative care strategy. We will build on the research published by Marie Curie and develop a strategy based on evidence—including our wider analysis of current and projected needs and our mapping of governance, services and support—and underpinned by what matters to people and their families based on their understanding and experiences of palliative care. It will be important for the strategy’s steering group members to continue to engage, as they are already doing, with the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill and the forthcoming human rights bill.
We want people to receive care where they feel most comfortable, wherever possible.