End-of-Life Care Is Vital. Why Is It So Neglected?

February 3, 2020

(The Guardian) – Britain’s end-of-life and palliative care services are a national travesty. That a public debate on this crisis is so sorely lacking has much to do with our fear of confronting dying and death. But death is a universal human experience; and, glib as it may sound, we will only die once. It should be a basic human right to die with comfort: and yet, according to Hospice UK, of the half a million who die each year, 100,000 are not given the vital care they need. With the government providing just a third of English hospices’ funding – in Wales it is scarcely over a quarter – these crucial services depend on the goodwill and charity of the public. No other component of our health services is funded like this.