UK: Use Palliative Care As A Cost-Cutting Device

I'd applaud this report if it addressed making palliative care better as the alternative to assisted sucide and euthanasia. Instead, the ever-hungry Brit National health Service wants to keep more terminally ill people at home to save money. Prediction: More patients will indeed stay home to die, but they'll receive very little to no care. Frightening.

100,000 terminally ill 'do not get proper palliative care'

Far more people die in hospital than wish to, and experts estimate that more than 90,000 people are not having their palliative care needs met.  Photo: ALAMY

By Andy Bloxham8:00AM BST 01 Jul 2011 97 Comments

A national payment structure would cut variation around the country in what the state pays for and what it does not, and support far more people to be cared for in their own homes, it said.

Experts behind the report say the move could reduce deaths in hospital by up to 60,000 a year by 2021, translating into savings of £180 million annually. more