What will it take to improve palliative care to give patients a 'meaningful choice'?

Marie Curie

By Emma Wilkinson

The debate over assisted dying in England and Wales has brought renewed attention to palliative care. As medics working in the service warn that it is in dire crisis, Emma Wilkinson looks at what needs to happen.

Palliative care doctors giving evidence to MPs on the assisted dying committee at Westminster painted a stark picture of an “inadequate” service that currently mainly serves those who are “white, rich and have cancer”.

More than 100,000 people a year cannot access the palliative care they need.¹ To reduce suffering and for people to have a “meaningful choice” about assisted dying, that has to be addressed urgently, the hearing heard.

Dr Rachel Clarke, a palliative care specialist in Oxford, told MPs that the experience for those at the end of life can be bleak.

“The reality that I see every day in my hospital is patients coming into the emergency department from the community in sometimes utter abject misery, agony, and lack of dignity. They have been forgotten completely. They're not getting healthcare. They're not getting social care. No one cares about them.”