As a palliative care specialist, I've witnessed the human tragedy of our end-of-life care crisis | Rachel Clarke

"A baby, in Britain, in 2025, takes its stuttering final breaths. All deaths in infancy are harrowing. But the fact that this particular death might have been prevented had neonatal care not depended so heavily on charity, had the NHS not failed to fund more than two-thirds of the healthcare babies need is unforgivable. Mercifully, the dystopian scenario I've just described does not exist in the UK today. Although paediatric care is undeniably overstretched, it is at least regarded as a core, bedrock NHS service."

"We would never tolerate a government that chose to defund most neonatal services, gambling instead that charities would act to fill the gap. Yet this is exactly the situation faced by people needing end-of-life care. Remarkably, the famously cradle to grave NHS funds only about 30% of hospice care in the UK. The shortfall is made up from charitable donations: the goodwill of local individuals and businesses stepping in where the state has chosen to walk away."

"As last week's National Audit Office report demonstrated, the financial state of the hospice sector is dire. Two-thirds of adult hospices in England recorded a deficit in 2023-24. Across the country, hospices are being forced to cut staff, reduce their bed numbers and slash community services for dying people who wish to be cared for at home. The result is a postcode lottery of care"

A moral contrast is drawn between well-protected neonatal services and the underfunded state of hospice care. The NHS funds only about 30% of hospice provision, leaving the remainder dependent on charitable donations. The National Audit Office reports that the hospice sector faces severe financial strain, with two-thirds of adult hospices in England running deficits in 2023-24. Hospices are cutting staff, reducing bed numbers, and scaling back community services, reducing options for people who wish to die at home. Funding withdrawals by local NHS bodies have already forced bed closures and displaced patients from hospice care.

Read at www.theguardian.com