Britain rated the best place to die
by Christine M - July 26, 2010
Britain, 26th July: Britain has been officially rated as the best place to die in the world by a recent study made public last week.
As per the Quality of Death Index, Britain tops the list of 40 nations in terms of quality of care provided for the dying. This is despite the fact that the nation does not offer best healthcare in the world.
Among the factors considered by researchers in the quality of death index include doctor-patient transparency, public awareness, access to pain-killers, financial strain to patients and palliative care system led by government.
Australia follows Britain by securing second rank while New Zealand, Ireland, Germany and Belgium came in the top 10 places. The United States got ranked at 9th position by the Quality of Health Index.
Several developed nations were ranked at the bottom of the index. India was ranked at 40th position while Finland and Denmark got placed at 28th and 22nd positions respectively. Russia, Portugal and South Korea found themselves in the bottom 10 places in the index.
Canada did not get a good ranking on the index even though it uses techniques of music therapy and medication to reduce intensity of suffering and pain. The index gave ninth rank out of total 40 nations.
Just 16 to 30 percent of people living in Canada get end-of-life or specialized hospice care, reveals the CHPC (Canadian Hospice Palliative Care Association) report released this June. However, the quality as well as the availability of healthcare in Canada varies across the nation with Niagara, Victoria and Edmonton are the best regions to die in Canada.
In several developed nations, aging population and increasing longevity require greater end-of-life care, the study found. And declining birth rates are likely to worsen the scenario as the number of children aged below five years is less than the number of population aged above 65 years.
Nearly 240,000 people die every year in Canada and this is likely to go higher by the year 2021 when nearly 300,000 people are likely to die.
The index prepared by Economist Intelligence Unit states that the quality of life is as important as quality of death.
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