The head of the Roman Catholic Church in England Wales has called for a culture of compassion and healing to inform the care offered to the sick and dying.

In a homily at Westminster Cathedral yesterday, Archbishop Vincent Nichols dismissed the notion that caring for the ill was a burden. He claimed instead that it could enhance the understanding and experience of life.

He said: "Comfort is at the heart of the care we strive to offer to each other, especially those who are burdened by illness or distress. This is true, of course, of all who genuinely care for the sick."

The Archbishop claimed some NHS hospitals were failing to offer care and comfort to patients because of a "prevailing culture" within the health service that was diminishing the ability of staff to care properly.

"A culture of true compassion and healing fosters a deep respect and attentive care of the whole person, it promotes genuine care characterised by a sense of humility, a profound respect for others, and a refusal to see them as no more than a medical or behavioural problem to be tackled and resolved," he said.

"To care in this way is a gift of oneself to another. And, as with all true giving, the giver also receives."

The Archbishop went on to reject assisted suicide, saying people should not flee from the reality of the situation by seeking every possible treatment.

He said death was not just a clinical event and that the spiritual being of a person had to be central to the care they received prior to their death.

End of life care should be guided by the principles of respecting life and accepting death, not fear, the Archbishop said.

"Respecting life means that every person must be valued for as long as they live.

"One implication of this is that death should never be the aim of our action or of our inaction. We should never try to bringabout death.

"On the other hand, accepting death means that we should prepare properly for death."

He added: "A religious person will see both life and death as coming from God."