Patients ‘dying in hospital corridors’ with UK hospices in ‘crisis’ | Politics | News

Labor’s failure to tackle the crisis facing the country’s care homes means people are dying in NHS hospital corridors “without painkillers”, the government has been told. Hospice providers and lawmakers are warning of a funding emergency leading to layoffs and service cuts. This means many people spend their final days in hospital rather than dying at home or receiving the best care in a hospice.

MPs from across political stripes have criticized the Government and NHS England for “failing to respond with the seriousness and urgency required to the growing financial crisis in the adult care home sector”. Nearly half a million people die in England every year, with 42% dying in hospitals, according to a major report by the public accounts committee published today; most people “don’t want or need” it. Less than three in 10 people (28%) die at home, and only 5% in care homes.

Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK, said: “Hospice homes face a real cliff edge as funding fails to keep pace with rapidly rising costs and rising demand.”

He added that nearly six in 10 care homes in England had made or were considering cuts to frontline services.

He said: “People are dying in corridors, people are dying without painkillers and a lack of funding means hospices are cutting back on services when they should be expanding. High-quality palliative and end-of-life care should be available to everyone who needs it, and hospices should be properly funded so they can be there for everyone who needs it.”

Independent care homes save the NHS an estimated “1.5 million bed days and more than £800 million each year,” according to the cross-party report. Hospices spend around £1.2bn a year on care but only receive around £420m from integrated care boards (ICBs); This means these vital services depend on philanthropic support.

Mr Porter said the current funding system was “not fit for purpose” and warned that “desperately needed hospice beds” were being closed due to staff costs.

His organization warns that more than 20 care homes have already cut services or “some are laying off valuable staff by reducing inpatient beds, limiting community care or cutting specialist support such as counseling and bereavement services.”

Sam Royston, of end-of-life charity Marie Curie, said the research “lays bare” a crisis, saying: “Almost one in three people lack the end-of-life care they need, many dying alone in pain or with overstretched, underfunded services… Dying well should not depend on where you live or what you can donate to charity. It is a fundamental expectation that the government has a duty to meet.”

Caroline Abrahams, director of Age UK, described hospices as “the bastion of palliative and end-of-life care in our country” but warned the service was “very patchy”. He added that changing this should be an “urgent priority” so “everyone can die with dignity”.

Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown, who chaired the committee, said: “The mark of a civilized society is how it treats older people, and the services provided by care homes in England could not be more important in this regard.”

He accused the government of “a carefree certainty that the sector’s problems will be solved at the local level” and warned of a “funding cliff edge” in April. It is feared that there will be further reductions in services if new financing is not provided to the sector before the new financial year.

Hospice UK previously reported that 380 beds were out of use in British care homes. It is stated that this is an increase of more than one quarter compared to the previous year.

Laura Barker, chief executive of St Cuthbert’s Hospice in Durham, warned: “At a time when the need for palliative and end-of-life care is increasing, reducing services and losing valuable staff has a hugely detrimental impact on the communities we serve.”

Gareth Pierce, director of Forget Me Not Children’s Hospice in Huddersfield, added: “As demand for our services continues to grow, rising costs and long-term underfunding mean we are having to make incredibly difficult decisions about how we deliver care. In January 2025, we were forced to make significant cost savings, including reductions in staff numbers, which inevitably affected some of our frontline services, such as short breaks and respite care, which many families experience I rely on.”

Becca Trower, chief executive and Clinical Director of St Raphael’s Hospice in Sutton, said the hospice had to cut “a third of our community services” 18 months ago.

“This included completely shutting down the Hospice at Home team,” he said. “These reductions have already had real consequences, with some patients now receiving less support than they need, leading to distress at home or unnecessary hospital admissions.”

Ms Trower added: “Without urgent action on funding, our ability to provide timely, effective care to patients will be increasingly compromised and ultimately our sustainability will be compromised.”

The report describes how “nearly one in four adults receiving care in acute hospitals is in the last year of their life, accounting for approximately 10 million bed days each year, and many may be in other settings better suited to meet their needs.”

Although ICBs have a legal duty to commission palliative care services that meet the needs of the local population, it says this “does not yet provide equal access to quality services”.

Shadow Health and Social Care Minister Stuart Andrew said Labour’s shock increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions was making it more expensive to keep care staff in work.

He said: “Hospitals are under intense pressure and Labor has made their situation worse by shouldering increasingly higher costs. “Labour’s Business Tax has made it more than £800 more expensive to employ a single person, making it even harder for hospices to make ends meet and provide the services people deserve at the end of their lives.

“Termally ill people must be treated with dignity and respect. The government urgently needs to determine how to ensure care homes have the capacity to provide people with the right overall care.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Hospices do incredible work to support people and families when they need it most and when they face incredibly challenging pressures.

“This Government has made the biggest investment in hospices in a generation, with £125 million to improve hospices facilities, freeing up other funding for patient care, and has also committed £80 million for children and young people’s hospices over three years.

“We will soon launch plans to modernize and improve the palliative and end-of-life care sector, with hospices playing a central role in delivering services closer to home as we shift more healthcare services from hospitals to the community.”