Sue Ryder was joined by Liberal Democrat MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole Annette Brooke, at the House of Commons last week to celebrate 60 years of delivering incredible care and launch its campaign, Dying isn’t working.

At the event Sue Ryder’s CEO, Paul Woodward, explained why dying isn’t working: “After 65 years since the establishment of the NHS, people still have unequal access to quality end of life care – your diagnosis, where you live, or who your doctor is shouldn’t pre-determine whether or not you have a good death. It is totally unacceptable that individuals and their families remain unsupported at the most life-changing and emotionally challenging time. We want to change that.”

“Everyone should be able to choose the care that they want at the end of their life. Our campaign is calling for fair and equal access to end of life care that enables people to choose the care they want that is tailored to their needs and wishes.”

Sue Ryder’s Dying isn’t working campaign is based on evidence from the charity’s recent reports, Ways and Means (published on 19 June), looking at barriers to accessing end of life care, and A Time and a Place (published on 9 July), exploring what people want at end of life. The original polling conducted for A Time and a Place highlights that whilst 62% of people said they wanted to die at home and 78% said pain relief was a top priority for them, only 27% felt that home was a place where they could be pain-free during their final days. These findings show that rather than making positive choices about end of life care, people would make unacceptable trade-offs between dying in the place of their choosing or receiving the care that they want.

Annette Brooke MP for Mid Dorset and North Poole commented: “I was very pleased to be able to join Sue Ryder at their event and add my voice to their important calls for fair and equal access to quality end of life care.”

To read the insights and recommendations from both reports and for more information on the Dying isn’t working campaign, please visit www.sueryder.org