TODAY'S report on the standards of end-of-life care in Britain makes disturbing reading.

The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman – the organisation which makes final decisions about NHS complaints in England – says thousands of dying patients, and their loved ones, are being badly let down in their final days.

Of 265 complaints about end-of-life care in the past four years, just over half of them were upheld.

It is important to remember that the health service is one of those institutions which usually only makes headlines when something goes wrong. There will, of course, be countless examples of excellent care which go unnoticed and there will always be cases which slip through the net because no system open to human error can ever be perfect.

That said, today's "Dying Without Dignity" report cites far too many instances of poor communication, inadequate pain management, and gaps in out-of-hours services.

Too many dying people are not being listened to. Too many are suffering unnecessarily. And too many loved ones are being subjected to additional grief.

To borrow a well-worn phrase from David Cameron, we really are all in this together. We are all going to die and we all want to die in a way which is as dignified and pain-free as possible. We want to be able to choose where we die and have a say in how long the inevitable is prolonged.

As a society, we owe it to each other to make sure that significant improvements are made to end-of-life care.