Terminally-ill patients will be given the right to die at home under the first comprehensive plan for end-of-life care in Scotland

Terminally-ill patients will be given the right to die at home under the first comprehensive plan for end-of-life care in Scotland.

The action plan, which is being unveiled by Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon today, promises round-the-clock community support so people do not have to spend their final days in hospital against their wishes.

Ms Sturgeon will pledge £3m of extra funding every year to support the commitment and £500,000 to kick-start improvements immediately. The move follows a survey of bereaved families by Scotland's official auditor which found almost one-in-five terminally ill patients did not die where they wanted to.

Dramatic differences in the level of palliative care available across the country was also highlighted by the Audit Scotland researchers and they discovered cancer patients receive 90% of specialist services while accounting for 30% of deaths.

Ms Sturgeon said: "People with any advanced, progressive or incurable illness should receive the best palliative care available.

"Our goal is excellent quality, integrated care - planned and delivered in ways which take full account of the needs and wishes of patients, families and carers."

Palliative care charity Marie Curie Cancer Care welcomed the plan and said it was committed to working with others to ensure the promises are turned into effective action.

Last year the charity released figures to The Herald showing how the level of care available to dying patients varied across the country. The data showed some health boards offering patients an average of 140 hours with specially-trained nurses, while others reached an average of 40 hours.

Marie Curie also said demand for their home-care nurses often burst the budget agreed with NHS managers.

The amount of money the Scottish health service currently spends on palliative care is unknown, according to Audit Scotland. This is because much of it is provided by people such as GPs and district nurses as part of their routine work.

About £59m was spent on specialist palliative care in 2006/07, and almost half of this money came from the voluntary sector.