Hospice UK responds to Impact Assessment of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK says: Hospice UK has no collective view on whether the law should change, but the Impact Assessment is right to acknowledge that there are serious practical challenges and financial consequences to hospice charities of preparing their care services, their staff and their volunteers for such a significant change, should the Bill pass. Nobody should underestimate the time and care that will be involved for hospices to continue to provide their skilled, compassionate, and much-needed services.

The report acknowledges the current uneven access in the UK to palliative and end of life care. This poses obvious risks in the context of Assisted Dying. We also strongly support the observation that there are no official statistics in England and Wales on the number of terminally ill adults, nor on the amount we spend as a country on palliative and end-of-life care. These are all changes that can and should be made. 

Hospices are already underfunded, as NHS funding has failed to keep up with rapidly rising costs of providing care in recent years, and many have had to close or cut back essential care services as a result. Without Government support to hospices, many will have no choice but to divert their resources away from their care services to carry out all the many essential preparations for any introduction of Assisted Dying. This would be both a profound moral and practical failure.

It is estimated that the implementation period will last a up to four years. If the Bill passes, hospices must receive Government support over this entire phase. The Government must provide assurance that the impact on hospices will be properly considered and that they will work with the sector to ensure services are protected if assisted dying is legalised. Regardless of what happens with assisted dying, we must improve access to palliative care for all.