This Programme, which is supported by The Atlantic Philanthropies and the Dormant Accounts Fund, has three key objectives:

1. To develop standards around end-of-life issues in hospitals

2. To develop the capacity of hospitals to introduce and implement these standards

3. To change the culture of hospitals regarding end-of-life issues

These objectives cover all care and organisational issues regarding end-of-life in our hospitals; from diagnosis and treatment through to dying, death and bereavement. The programme is concerned with all types of deaths, unexpected and expected, and with the needs of patients, families and the staff who care for them. It focuses on how and where people die and not with why they die. Some 40 acute and community hospitals throughout the country are currently participating in the first phase of this five year programme.

This review is concerned with the physical environment of Irish hospitals in which more than six out of ten people die each year.