People with terminal illnesses are being left to die in hospital corridors and busy “impersonal” wards as a result of the financial crisis engulfing Britain’s hospices, their relatives have warned.
More than 58,000 people and almost 300 MPs and peers are calling on the Prime Minister to act to improve end-of-life care before Parliament again debates legislation to legalise assisted dying.
Labour grandee Lord Blunkett, the Prime Minister’s political mentor, is among those backing the Every Hospice Matters campaign, making a plea to Burnham to find the money to fund palliative care.
He argued in favour of providing 50 per cent of funding for hospices based on the previous year’s audited accounts. This “would bring about fairness and much needed stability and a recognition of their crucial role in end of life care,” Lord Blunkett told The i Paper.
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