Helen Salisbury: The assisted dying bill must be accompanied by a funding boost for palliative care

Abstract

One effect of last week’s parliamentary debate and vote to change the law on assisted dying is that more people are talking about death, which isn’t a common or comfortable topic of conversation here in the UK. In hospitals and GP surgeries the focus is generally on preserving life, and the topic of death is surprisingly rarely tackled head on. Hospices are an exception: their staff have had practice and are comfortable talking about death as much or as little as each patient wishes. Many patients don’t want to discuss death. I remember one complaining to me about his oncologist: “Why does he have to check at every appointment that I understand that I’m dying?” he asked. “I do know, but I really …