A UK charity, Marie Curie Cancer Care, is lobbying the government to fund home care so that patients can die at home with their families. A survey commissioned by the charity found that 64% of people would like to die at home if they were terminally ill. But tight palliative care budgets mean that only 25% are able to do so. The charity has calculated that the Government could save ?200 million a year in hospital costs if it spent ?100 million on home care.

Tom Hughes-Hallet, the CEO of the charity, says “the choice to die at home is not there for everyone. We want to give people the choice to die at home surrounded by their family, and what people want time and time again is to be with their pets — often their greatest friend in their life. Very often, the patient will got into hospital because they do not want to be a burden to their family.”

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