Patients dying in hospital in pain and lacking dignity: survey A nurse was said to have told staff to 'bag him up' after his death, in front of his distraught family. The ONS survey commissioned by the Department of Health found that although seven in ten people wanted to die at home, more than half died in hospital. The survey found that hospital care was lacking in almost all areas including privacy, treating patients and family with sensitivity, providing basic nursing care such as help with toileting and finding a comfortable position in bed, relief of pain and other symptoms and adhering to patient wishes. Imelda Redmond, director of policy and public affairs, at Marie Curie Cancer Care said: "Families have told us, in large numbers, that their loved ones do not always get the care they need or deserve at the end of life. Hospitals are letting people down at a crucial time and this poor care is leaving behind memories of loved ones being treated with little dignity and respect, and dying in pain. This is simply not good enough. Good quality care can be provided at the end of life. The care received in hospices and at home was highly regarded by relatives. We only have one opportunity to get end of life care right. There is no reason why we can't provide a dignified and respectful death, regardless of setting, location or diagnosis. It is now time to learn from these findings and make improvements. Eve Richardson, chief executive of the National Council for Palliative Care and the Dying Matters Coalition said: "Although it is encouraging that three-quarters of people who have been bereaved reported in this survey that the care received had been outstanding, excellent or good, it's a real concern that the quality of care people who are dying receive appears to vary so hugely, with hospitals performing especially badly. There is absolutely no excuse for not treating people who are dying with dignity and respect, which is why it is disturbing that hospital staff appear to be failing to do this consistently - with bereaved people reporting just 57 per cent of hospital doctors and 48 per cent of hospital nurses always showed dignity and respect. The Government launched an End of Life Strategy in 2008 to improve the care of dying patients, including access to district and community nurses around the clock and funding for staff training. Care Services Minister, Paul Burstow said: "All people, regardless of their age or condition, should get the best quality care at the end of life. The results of this survey will be carefully studied by NHS and social care professionals. It reveals a wide variation in the quality of care across the country. There is more to be done to improve both the way care is coordinated for people in their own homes and the quality of care in hospital. We are already working with hospices, the NHS and social care to pilot new ways of working and put in place a secure funding system to support palliative care. These results will help health and social care to benchmark the care they deliver and learn from the best. Anita Hayes, deputy director of the National End of Life Care Programme, said: "We know there are variations in the end of life care that people receive and this needs to be addressed as a priority. We also know more generally that there is a poorer experience of care in hospitals and that more people would prefer to die at home. Equity of access and reducing variation in end of life care is an urgent goal that can only be addressed with information and evidence. This survey provides people who are bereaved with an opportunity to feedback what they really think, which they haven't previously had before. The survey itself will also raise awareness about the importance of people's experiences of end of life care. This will inevitably lead to improvements as health and social care professionals think carefully about what care is being delivered and how.