21 May 2015
On Monday 20 May the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman reported on their investigation into end of life care, Dying without dignity. The report recommends that end of life care could be improved for up to 355,000 people a year in England, and identified a number of issues that need to be addressed.
David Hare, Immediate Past President of the IFoA, comments,
“Clearly, it’s good news that people are living longer, but this is not without its challenges, particularly for health and social care services. In the UK, one-sixth of the population is over 65 and the greatest population increases have been among those 85 and older. Over the last decade, life expectancy has been steadily increasing; however there has not been a similar increase in healthy life expectancy, so how long a person can expect to live with health or social care needs is increasing.
“A male in the UK, aged 65, can expect to live an additional 17.8 years, and he would likely have care needs for 7.4 of those years. The life expectancy for females aged 65 is 20.4 years and they would likely have care needs for 9.2 years. This means that Health and Social care services are increasingly coming under pressure and this is set to continue. The Government needs to take these changing demographics into account and make sure services are delivered in different ways to adapt to these changes.”
~ENDS~
For further comment, a full copy of the report, or to answer any questions that you may have, please contact Annette Heninger, Media Relations Manager at the IFoA, on 07525 592 198 or by emailing annette.heninger@actuaries.org.uk
Editorial notes:
Download the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman report.
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