The NHS Trust which runs Queen’s Hospital is one of the few in England providing face-to-face palliative care around the clock.

NHS England’s review of end of life care showed that only 16 of 142 hospital trusts in England – including Barking, Havering, Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (BHRUT) – have specialists on site 24/7.

Dr Claire Bates, consultant in palliative medicine at BHRUT, said: “I’m proud of what we’ve achieved and we know that we still have improvements to make.

“The review confirms we continue to make progress and we are totally committed to our on-going journey of providing outstanding care.”

An individual care plan is used to assess patients’ needs during their last hours in 93 per cent of cases across BHRUT compared to 66pc nationally.

The trust was also above average in giving patients the opportunity to voice concerns. The report found that 89pc of patients across BHRUT had this chance compared to the 84pc national average.

The trust has taken measures to improve its end of life care including training clinical staff to Gold Standard Framework (GFS), an accreditation that encourages conversations about death, and the introducing of a bereavement service for relatives.

A spokesman for Saint Francis Hospice, Broxhill Road, Havering-atte-Bower, which supports the trust in providing end of life care, said the report does show improvements have been made but there is “still a long way to go”.

He said: “We want to provide end of life care that not only the patients want but their relatives and to give help to the staff at BHRUT if they need help or advice in providing this care.

“The message we want to give is that if the government and NHS are serious in helping run hospices, then more funding is needed for services and beds.

“It would relieve hospitals that are under pressure by patients coming to us for end of life care instead of the trust but we need the facilities for this to happen.”