MSPs have met with patients and staff at a hospice as they told a Holyrood committee about their experiences of accessing palliative and end of life care.
Among those involved in the start of the inquiry into the issue by the Health and Sport Committee, were two men whose wives died recently.
Retired senior police officer Harry Bunch has volunteered with Marie Curie since 2011, when his wife died at the charity's Glasgow hospice, Glasgow.
Mr Bunch said: "When Liz was admitted, the staff took a lot of the pressure that I had been experiencing away from me trying to look after her at home. The staff cared for and supported both of us and enabled me to stay with her in her room in the hospice for the final two weeks. I decided to volunteer with Marie Curie because of the positive experience of those couple of weeks in the hospice."
Mr Bunch said as chairman of the charity's expert voices group he welcomed the inquiry.
He added: "What I have found with fellow members is that there are many similarities in our experiences caring for loved ones at the end of life. There's a real opportunity to develop the practices and the voice that would make us world leaders, and that's the aspiration - to be the best."
Bill Whiland and his wife Edith had known each other since they were 17 and had four children together.
Mrs Whiland was diagnosed with motor neurone disease in April 2011 and died in 2013. Bill said: "My wife Edith had very specific goals that she wanted to achieve; to meet her first grandchild, to attend her only daughter's wedding and to die at home. With the support of Marie Curie working with the palliative care team. Edith could never have achieved these goals.
"I'm really impressed and appreciative of the work the Scottish Parliament is doing."
Speaking at the launch of the inquiry, titled 'We need to talk to Palliative Care,' committee convener Duncan McNeil MSP said: "The recent debate on assisted dying hihglighted that the provision of palliative care in Scotland is not good enough. Our committee heard that access to palliative care is not available on an equal basis.
"We want this inquiry to shine a light on access to palliative care in Scotland and what more can be done to improve care for people at the end of their lives."
The call for views is open until August 12.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article