This General Election, Marie Curie wants all candidates and political parties to commit to fixing end of life care.
We set out our five main policy priorities in our joint manifesto, and we have
written to the party leaders to highlight the need for urgent action. Over 50,000 supporters have signed our petition calling on the next Prime Minister to take urgent action to fix end of life care.
Now that the parties have published their manifestos for the 2024 General Election, how have they responded to our campaign?
The good news is that all of the major UK-wide parties have featured end of life care in their manifestos in some form. The Conservatives highlight the importance of delivering high quality palliative care services, and say they would “continue to support children’s and adults’ hospices”. Labour set out a commitment for palliative care to be one of the services to be brought together in the community through the trial of new Neighbourhood Health Centres. And the Liberal Democrats have pledged to provide a fair funding deal for hospices.
Unsurprisingly, health features as a major theme for all of the parties, with each setting out a range of commitments to tackle the challenges facing our healthcare system. From providing more appointments and recruiting more doctors and nurses, to utilising new technology and delivering more healthcare in community settings. But without a comprehensive plan to fix end of life care, people will still die without the support they need, and our health and care systems will continue to struggle.
There have been some welcome commitments on supporting carers and bereaved people across the manifestos, although UK-wide parties have had little to say on how they would change our welfare system to better support people at the end of life.
It's important to note that healthcare is devolved. This means decision-making on many issues affecting dying and bereaved people is the responsibility of the different national governments.
Both the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru have committed to policies that would support people at the end of life: like reviewing benefits rules for people with a terminal illness and introducing a social tariff on energy bills.
But overall, despite some commitments in line with our priorities, all of our political parties have failed to grasp the importance of fixing end of life care within their agendas for government.
What do voters think about end of life care?
New research demonstrates that there is a strong public appetite for political action to fix end of life care*.
Opinion polling undertaken on our behalf shows that people living in the UK want to see more support and care for dying people, and increased government funding to ensure the NHS and end of life charities can continue to be there for everyone who needs end of life care, into the future.
The research found:
- Support comes from a broad cross-section of the public. The issue of palliative and end of life care has strong support across most of the population.
- Access to palliative care is seen as more of a priority than financial support. While all of our manifesto priorities have high support among the public, proposals which involved financial support for those who are nearing the end of life or their families had more tempered support, with some concern about the state of the nation’s finances.
- Many don’t think the government or political parties are committed. While the public want to see end of life care as a priority for the government, they largely don’t believe that any of the main parties can be trusted or are committed to making a difference. There was a sense of scepticism among the public that politicians would prioritise those who are dying.
- The public want to see a compassionate approach to end of life care. Although there were some concerns about costs, above all else, the public want to see compassion towards those who are nearing the end of their lives, and rejected arguments that those who are dying matter any less than those who aren’t.
So, we are clear. We need all candidates and political parties to recognise and prioritise fixing end of life care if they are elected.
Sign our petition to get the next government to fix end of life care.
* Marie Curie commissioned More in Common to undertake opinion polling on the public’s views on palliative and end of life care in May 2024. We polled a representative sample of 2,298 adults across all four nations of the United Kingdom, alongside hosting focus groups in the constituencies of the Health Secretary (Victoria Atkins, Louth and Horncastle) and Shadow Health Secretary (Wes Streeting, Ilford North).
