A £50 million capital investment programme for hospices was annnounced in 2006 along with a commitment to review long-term funding for children's hospices. From 2008 the Government expects everyone with a long-term condition and/ or a long-term need for support routinely to receive information about their condition and have self care support services more widely availiable. This conference discussed what healthcare professionals can expect from the national strategy for end of life care and how palliative care can better meet the needs of the patient. Listen to Jan McFadyen, Nurse Consultant in Non-Cancer Palliative Care from The Martlets Hospice, give a personal account of a 90 year old man whose wish to die at home could not be fulfilled. The system had failed the man through a lack of out of hours care and the simple fact that there was nobody to take care of his personal hygiene. There is a lot that can be learned from these failures, she said.