More terminally ill patients should be able to die naturally and with dignity in hospices and their own home, Lord Michael Howard, the former leader of the Conservative Party in Britain, has said.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, Lord Howard, chair of the charity Help for Hospices, warned that hospitals were increasingly becoming the “default option” for elderly people rather than the “last resort.” He yesterday announced a new drive to reduce the number of terminally ill people who die in hospitals by a fifth.

He told The Telegraph: “Most people don’t want to die in hospital. Their focus, understandably, is on curing people. They are not always good at recognising when somebody can’t be cured and needs palliative care.

“Even when it’s recognised they are not very good at providing palliative care because they are not properly equipped to deal with people who aren’t going to get better.”

Help for Hospices wants to reduce the number of people dying in hospital each year by a fifth, equivalent to 50,000 people a year.

It is seeking £500,000 in government funding for six pilots in which it hospices partner hospitals to try to help terminally ill patients who want to leave wards. The charity hopes to roll the scheme out across Britain next year.

Lord Howard said: “Hospital has become the default option for dying people and for an increasing number of frail elderly people. Hospital should be the last resort at the end of life, not the first one.

“This has resulted in inappropriate and often poor quality care that completely fails to support dying people’s actual needs and deprives them of alternative care options.

“Hospices can provide the solution by leading moves to provide and facilitate alternative forms of care, whether through their own inpatient units or working closely with their local hospital to deliver alternative options.”

Lord Howard also spoke about the value of dying in your own home, recalling death of his father at the family home in South Wales. He said: “I was a fledgling barrister at the time. He [my father] was told he would die in six months time and that’s indeed what happened. I was there at the end.

“Before he died he was looked after by an extraordinarily dedicated group of nuns, and the devotion and care which they lavished on him as always stayed with me. The word I would use is gentleness. Gentle, loving care.”

He added that he would like to end his life in the “familiar surroundings” of his home.

He said: “I know that when the moment comes I would prefer to be at home in familiar surroundings, hopefully surrounded by my family, than die in a ward with a lot of other people around and a lot of nurses preoccupied with other things.

“I would like to be in Kent, in the home we have in our former constituency. If I have a choice, when the moment comes, that’s where I’d like to be. It’s a beautiful spot.”