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<p>Much of the palliative care patients receive will be provided either in outpatient
or community settings, by nurses, community teams or general practitioners as part
of general NHS services provision, rather than as an identified palliative care service.
In such services, data are either not available or do not identify palliative treatment.
In addition, social and voluntary sector organisations can provide additional support
to patients at the end of life. Therefore, figures for the total cost of palliative
care is not available. Furthermore, the commissioning and configuration of National
Health Service palliative care services are a local matter and the Department holds
no data on the number of beds available either in hospitals or in hospices.</p><p>NHS
services include the provision of NHS palliative care. England’s NHS Constitution
states all patients have the right to be involved in planning and making decisions
about their health including end of life care and to be given information and support
to enable them to do this.</p>
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