Architecture graduate Thomas Gibson has explored how palliative care could be separated from the NHS to offer a more dignified way of dying.

According to Thomas, the ‘main aim is to avert geriatric death on a hospital ward’, opening up choice for the terminally ill in determining where they spend their last stage of life.

Thomas’ project considers how the scale of the 'mega' hospital might be broken down to include new types of outpatient day-care centres that can connect to the existing health service, while specially-designed palliative care areas feature calm spaces – cloisters or courtyards, materials, lighting, fittings and fixtures suitable for elderly use.

Users of the services can create their own care plan, while family members can be trained in end-of-life care for support in the home.

Thomas envisages that NHS funding – the majority of which, he says, is pumped into services on the hospital ward – be diverted to local councils, which might provide this sort of service as a public-private initiative with a developer.

Jackie Marshall-Cyrus, Lead Specialist, Assisted Living Innovation Platform at the Technology Strategy Board, and one of the awards judges, said it was an inspiration to see a young architect ‘raising the taboo subject of dignity in dying and end-of-life care. It provides an excellent platform for multi-sectoral innovation and application of technology’.