Seven of the UK's largest health charities have called for the next government to provide funding for free end-of-life social care to avoid 1.4m unnecessary deaths in hospital.
The charities involved in this warning include Macmillan, Marie Curie, and the Motor Neurone Disease Association, as well as Sue Ryder, Hospice UK, the National Council for Palliative Care and Cicely Saunders International.
They are warning that approximately 1.4m people could die in hospital, when their preference was to die at home, which puts pressure on overstretched A&E departments.
Speaking on behalf of the coalition, Dr Jane Collins, chief executive of Marie Curie (pictured), said: “It’s time to change the way we care for people with a terminal illness. Fewer than 5 per cent of people say they want to be in hospital at the end of their lives, yet around 50 per cent of people who die do so in hospital, often with no clinical need to be there.
“Pressure is increasing on NHS budgets and A&E departments are already over-stretched. The evidence shows that it makes financial sense for the NHS to support people to be cared for at home in their last weeks and days. This is also what the majority of people with a terminal illness would prefer.
“Together, we are calling on all parties and the next Government to set out how they will introduce fast and free social care for everyone nearing the end of their lives to reduce pressure on hospitals and deliver genuine choice.”
The group have said that half of the 550,002 UK deaths occur in hospital each year, but four in five of those who die in hospital wanted to die at home. The charities have suggested that this is due to a number of factors, including the lack of 24/7 community support, poor coordination between services and the “failure to provide fast and free social care support for people at the end of life”.
The coalition has said that the scope for efficiency savings to be made by supporting those who want to spend their final days at home to do so. They say that by having access to high quality nursing care in the community, total care costs can be as much as £500 lower by person.
It adds that all political parties have made some kind of commitment to improve choice at the end of life and to support more people to die at home.
