Good palliative care can ease the pain of dying – this bill means Labor must fund it | Rachel Clarke

TThe line-up of former prime ministers lining up to express their condolences for the dying in recent days has been quite special. David Cameron, Theresa May, Liz Truss, Boris Johnson – they all wanted to let us know how much they cared. Imagine if this appeal from those in power—each of whom is better placed than anyone else to improve the lot of people with terminal diagnoses—had used that power while in office to do something concrete, tangible to do that Alleviating supposedly incurable suffering touched her so deeply. In other words, imagine that their actions then matched their beautiful words today.

I don’t doubt the strength of feeling behind this vote to legalize euthanasia in England and Wales, but as someone who has cared for thousands of people with terminal illnesses, I have to wonder at the sincerity. Because every Prime Minister of the last 20 years – and every MP for that matter – knows full well that much (though not all) of the pain and misery of dying can be alleviated by good palliative care. They also know how much end-of-life suffering is caused by basic NHS, social and palliative care simply not being there for patients. Wes Streeting went one step further. The Health Secretary cited the specious reality of our underfunded, patchy palliative care services as the main reason for his opposition to the bill and stated (correctly) that the postcode lottery in care denies many patients a real choice at the end of their lives.

And he is absolutely right. I see them every day, the dying patients that British society is failing. Sometimes they arrive at the emergency room wracked with pain, desperate with fear, having begged for help and support that never came. After a few days of support from our team – the first palliative care they have ever received – their symptoms, their outlook and their hopes for the future can often radically change.

So it’s up to you, Streeting and Keir Starmer. What will you do now with the tormented, frail and pain-filled patients who sit and tremble near death while being failed by the NHS, social care and society in general? Surely you won’t allow MPs to introduce legislation to make it easier to die without addressing the underfunding that forces people with terminal illnesses to conclude that death is their only option?

Surely you will now provide an immediate – and massive – injection of public money to properly fund UK palliative care so that 100,000 people don’t die every year without the care they need? Don’t become one of the youngest political rulers who turn their backs on dying people in an emergency.

I know that dying people were not in the Labor manifesto. I know they weren’t mentioned in the keynote speeches. I also know that this is not surprising, because underlying this vote is an ugly truth: death and dying remain taboo in modern Britain. It is therefore with great joy that, thanks to Kim Leadbeater’s bill, a respectful national discussion has begun about the way we die in Britain. But above all, one topic must remain the focus. We cannot continue to abandon the dying by grotesquely underfunding palliative care. The problem won’t go away. Properly fund palliative care once and for all, Starmer and Streeting. The nation is watching.