HEALTH bosses want to improve the way Bolton cares those who are dying.

A plan has been put in place to help families talk more openly about end of life and improve education and training among sector workers.

Presenting the Strategy for Better Palliative and End of Life Care to Bolton's Health and Wellbeing Board on Thursday, Dr Tarek Bakht said the challenged was to cahnge the way people look at the how someone dies and create a coordinated response to caring for people in their final days.

He said: "Looking at the sector over the last year it has been a very challenging area. Nationally it has been a challenge.

"Culturally the challenge is the way we look at the way someone dies. Back in the 1900's more people died at home, now 40 per cent of patients die in hospital but many want to die at home.

"It costs lot of money, many patients are complex cases. Presently end of life care costs around £460 million. In 2015 Bolton Council purchased 102,500 hours of home care for people in the last year of their life. and the average expenditure annually on social care is £10 million.

"These costs mount up, and that's why the End of Life topic is high on our agenda.

"We are looking at proactive, integrated and patient centred care."

The GP and member of the Bolton NHS Clinical Commissioning Group said they were dealing with an increasingly elderly and frail population, with 15 million people in England suffering from a long term condition.

This is expected to rise to 18 million by 2025.

Problems have occurred as the elderly and fail are repeatedly admitted to hospital as their health deteriorates and struggle to access professional help from their homes.

In many cases, Dr Bakht reported, the person may evetually die in hospital.

To end the cycle Bolton's health bosses, both at the NHS and Bolton Council, want to improve communication between patients and families as well as between professionals and services, improve recognition that a patient is dying, coordinate responses between different services, increase training and provide support after death support for family and friends.

There are also plans to introduce an electronic record of care for a patient during their end of life which can be share among professionals delivering their care.

Dr Bakht explained that the first hurdle was to overcome the taboo and fear of telling a patient they would have to prepare for end of life care.

He added: "I was in hospital medicine for eight years and never got specific training on care for end of life but as a GP it was the first training I received.

"The aim is to deliver better structured training, clinicians, GPs, consultants a like can find if challenging engaging in the conversation with patients about their end of life."

The strategy has been developed in partnership with Bolton Hospice, Bolton NHS Foundation Trust, Bolton Council, Bolton Public Health, Macmillan Cancer Support and Bolton Dementia Carers Support Group.