John Reid meets patient Patrick Mayers during a visit to Chelsea and Westminster Hospital in west London.

It says patients should have access to high quality palliative care whether they choose to die at home or in a hospice.

The investment follows a government commitment to improve palliative care.

Charities welcomed the announcement, and said everyone should be able to die with dignity, in comfort and free from pain.

People should be able to choose where they die and how they wish to be cared for Dame Gill Oliver Macmillan Cancer Relief

The programme will build on existing initiatives, such as the Gold Standards Framework drawn up by Macmillan Cancer Relief, which sets out guidance for GPs and cancer specialists caring for the terminally ill.

Liverpool and Lancashire and South Cumbria also have programmes that help doctors, nurses and patients and their families to plan palliative care.

The Department of Health said it would be working with organisations including Marie Curie Cancer Care, Age Concern and Help the Aged.

Patients' rights

Health Secretary John Reid said: "People with incurable illnesses should be able to choose appropriate services that can offer them relief.

"They may also want to make choices relating to the end of their life, such as where to die.

"We are working towards an NHS where every patient has a choice of when, where and how they are treated."

A spokeswoman for Help the Aged said: "Every older person, no matter how ill or close to death, should have the right to comfort, freedom from pain and a high quality of medical and nursing care.

"Care, understanding and respect for people who are dying are an integral part of good health care.

"A good death is one in which people are enabled to die with dignity and a sense of completion, retaining their autonomy.

"This welcome investment in palliative care services will help to ensure that older people are able to exercise greater choice and control at the end of their lives."

'First step'

Dame Gill Oliver, director of service development at Macmillan Cancer Relief said: "Death for us all is a certainty and people should be able to choose where they die and how they wish to be cared for.

"Macmillan's Gold Standards Framework has enabled improvements for terminally ill cancer patients which can readily be applied to all areas of end of life care so that everyone, not just cancer patients, benefits.

"If we can get it right in cancer we can get it right for everyone."

Tom Hughes-Hallett, chief executive of Marie Curie Cancer Care, which provides palliative care to 30,000 cancer patients each year - half of whom are cared for at home, said: "We see this as the first step, in an often neglected area of care, towards making a difference to terminally ill patients and their families."