麻豆社

Thousands of gravely ill people in England are being left with inadequate round-the-clock pain relief and poor access to end of life care, according to new research published in the BMJ today. They are caught in a postcode lottery which affects whether their families are able to secure proper NHS end-of-life care on weekends and during the night, it suggests.

Lesley Goodburn, who experienced the system when her husband Seth died of pancreatic cancer, says that they were "thrust into a palliative world" they didn't understand and Baroness Ilora Finlay, chair of Dying Matters and author of the report in the BMJ, says that "without a national template" for healthcare planning, some areas will always remain in need of attention.

(Image: Hand on a walking stick. Credit: Getty Images)