There are calls for end-of-life care in the UK to be improved on two fronts simultaneously: better palliative care and the legalisation of assisted dying. One individual, Liz Wilson, shared the experience of her husband, John, who died in March aged 43 after nearly six years of bowel cancer treatment. Despite receiving palliative care in a hospice for his last three months, he suffered terribly, with some pain and suffering proving untreatable.
Ms Wilson argues that improving palliative care and legalising assisted dying are not competing ideas. She believes that doing both would also free up hospice beds.
Stephen Kirkham highlighted that £6.6 billion was spent on emergency hospital care in the last year of life, in contrast to £1.1 billion for all 204 UK hospices. He estimates that providing comprehensive specialist palliative care across the UK would cost approximately £1.4 billion annually. Mr Kirkham suggests that if planning for future care could avert just 10% of emergency admissions in the last year of life, the money saved would cover the funding gap.
Sophie Blake, living with incurable secondary breast cancer, questioned what happens to individuals whose suffering cannot be adequately relieved by even excellent palliative care. She noted that some people are allergic to opioid painkillers, making pain control difficult. Ms Blake emphasised that while excellent palliative care can transform many deaths, it cannot guarantee that every dying person's suffering can be relieved.