Health committee won't recommend bill for legislation on palliative care

The need for legislation to improve palliative care services has been questioned in a Scottish Parliament committee report published today.

The Health and Sport Committee is considering the Palliative Care (Scotland) Bill, which proposes specific statutory duties on such care provision.

The majority of committee members have agreed in the Stage One report that the general principles of the Bill should not be recommended.

The committee said it shared the desire of MSP Gil Paterson, who introduced the Bill, to deliver improvements in care.

However most members agreed that driving such change through primary legislation could have unintended consequences.

Christine Grahame, committee convener, said: "Introducing a specific statutory duty to provide palliative care, rigidly defined in legislation, could lead to a loss of flexibility in service provision. However, the Bill has sparked a very important debate about the future of palliative care in Scotland.

"We expect the Scottish Government to build on progress already being made through its existing Living and Dying Well action plan for palliative care and have asked for indicators to be established by March 2011 to allow its impact to be assessed."

The report concluded the Bill did not establish a simple and unambiguous definition of palliative care, and the collation and publication of data on palliative care and end-of-life care does not require legislation.