Marie Curie responds to Excess mortality and mortality displacement in England and Wales: 2020 to mid-2021
Comment published
The Office for National Statistics released data on Excess mortality and mortality displacement in England and Wales: 2020 to mid-2021. Responding to this, Mark Jackson, Policy Manager for England at Marie Curie, said:
"This latest data shows that during the pandemic, on average, over 120 additional people were dying at home every day compared with the previous five year average. This trend is not going away and these figures continue to point to a hidden crisis happening in people's homes across England.
"Carers have told us that people are dying at home without access to pain relief or the dignity they deserve, and that they are being left unsupported. Lessons must be learnt from the pandemic which has been a stress test for end of life care in the community and shown that the current model for supporting people at end of life is neither resilient nor sustainable in the long term.
"We are at a critical moment for end of life care and support services and we urge MPs to support our calls for an amendment to the Health and Care Bill, that would create a legal duty to provide palliative care services in every part of England."