Your editorial on hospices (29 October) was right to highlight the crisis in end-of-life care. As the National Audit Office’s report makes clear, unless urgent action is taken, the system will be overwhelmed. More than 5.75 million deaths are expected in the next decade, and over 5 million of those people will need palliative care. Too many face dying in avoidable pain, in poverty and alone. And when dying people can’t get the support they need close to home, they often have no choice other than visiting A&E, calling out an ambulance, or being admitted to hospital at crisis point. Our research shows people in their final year of life already account for one in six emergency admissions and almost a third of hospital bed days.
As our population ages and a greater number of people die each year, without action this will place our health and care system under ever greater pressure. In 10 years, the need for end-of-life care will rise by 10% compared with today. More than 60,000 more people will need care every year. Yet we have no plan in place to address the scale of this challenge. In fact, the last national palliative care strategy was written nearly two decades ago.
