Close to 600,000 people die in the UK annually – a figure that was higher during the pandemic, but has since fallen back. More than half are at home or in a care home; most of the rest are in hospital. But for about 28,000 people who need specialist end-of-life care (nearly 5% of all deaths), a hospice is where they receive it. A much larger number receive palliative care from hospices in the community (more than 80% of hospices’ work is delivered in this way, through partnerships with the NHS). Staff also support the relatives of those who are dying, including children. But their valuable work is now in jeopardy as the sector faces its worst funding crisis in 20 years.
Hospices are well-regarded and rightly so. The Care Quality Commission noted in 2017 that they provided more outstanding care than any other service it regulated. Many more people would choose to die in hospices if they could. Yet, palliative care has traditionally not been a high-status area of medicine. And like so much that is associated with death, hospices tend to stay out of sight and out of mind until people need them.
