Glenrothes MP backs calls for new commission to improve care for terminally ill patients

Richard Baker, MP for Glenrothes and Mid Fife, voted against the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill in Parliament recently, citing safeguarding concerns for vulnerable people.

Following the debate – which has passed to the next round of scrutiny – Mr Baker said it was vital, however, not to not lose focus on the need to ensure high quality palliative care for those who require it.

He also called for a commission to review financial support for working-age people coping with terminal illness, after Marie Curie revealed 25 per cent of such people in Fife were dying in poverty.

He said: “We have a situation where many hospices are saying they are being taken to ‘the brink’ financially, and that’s unacceptable.

“We should be taking the opportunity around the assisted dying vote to have a bigger conversation about dying well, including how we ensure people have the right care at the end of their lives.

“If we as a society want to ensure people can die with dignity and compassion, palliative care provision must be supported and fully-funded.

“I think everyone, regardless of where they stand on the assisted dying vote, can at least agree on this and that’s why Gordon Brown’s proposal for the establishment of a commission to devise a fully-funded, ten year strategy for improved and comprehensive palliative care merits such serious consideration.”

According to statistics released by Marie Curie, poverty at the end of life has risen by 19 per cent over the past four years in the UK, increasing from 93,000 people dying in poverty to 111,000 in 2023.

However, the likelihood is more marked in working-age populations.

In Fife in 2023, 25 per cent of working-age people who died, died in poverty, compared to 14 per cent of pension-age people.

Mr Baker said: “These statistics are shocking. People approaching the end of their lives should be able to spend the last months and years of life focusing on what really matters – spending as much time as possible with loved ones, living as well as they can, for as long as they are able.

“Instead terminal illness pushes too many working-age people into poverty - and the last stage of their lives is spent worrying about how to pay bills and incurring debts that will be passed onto their loved ones when they are gone.

“Many of these people will have worked all their lives and paid their taxes, but they can’t access a State Pension.

“This is unacceptable and I would urge government at all levels to tackle the poverty too many people face at the end of their lives.”