THE MP for Bury North, James Frith, has called for increased integration of hospice care with wider healthcare provision to give families more choice over end of life care, in a new report.

Entitled "Living Well and Dying Well" the report was launched at a ceremony attended by health care and hospice figure heads, and regional politicians, at Bury Hospice today.

Speaking at the launch Mr Frith said that the report would confront the need for reform of the hospice and healthcare sectors created by rising life expectancy, austerity and the "social care crisis".

The report calls on data from the Hospice UK which found that 50 per cent of people currently die in hospital, despite just 3 per cent wishing to do so, and 82 per cent wanting to die at home.

It also cites findings that hospices could help reduce the number of people dying in hospital by 50,000 annually, which could generate savings of £80 million for the NHS.

To help redress this, and simultaneously support the NHS, the report concluded by setting out a a series of recommendations including creating "clear, sustainable and long-term funding plans for all Greater Manchester hospices".

It also called for the expansion of hospice provision, changes to palliative care commissioning and referrals, and the establishment a Greater Manchester standard for end of life care.

Mr Frith said that the report was about ensuring "a true return to the cradle to the grave principle" of health care.

Other aims of the report include "fostering a culture that embraces talking about dying" and "promotes final advance care plans", as well as improving equity of access to end of life care to groups traditionally underrepresented in by current hospice care provision ­— including non-cancer patients, Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities, members of the LGBT+ community, and the homeless.

The report has been embraced by of the chairman of Greater Manchester Hospice Group, Dr Leigh Vallance, and the Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham; who said that he would now aim to put Mr Frith's recommendations into action in the region.

He said: "This is moment to change and the beginning of a new relationship of equality, where we work together to improve end of life care in Greater Manchester.

"We are setting the very clear ambition that every single person who lives here should have the ability to choose what is right for them at the end of their lives."