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This assisted dying bill is a distraction from real needs

Healthcare ● National by RhodriHillFarm · 🏷️ 1. Concerned Citizen · Local · 1 month ago
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Saw Mrs. Price down the village last week. She’s 89, sharp as a tack but frail. Her husband’s been gone ten years, and she told me she’s just lonely. Her GP visits once a month, a nurse calls in twice a week. It’s not enough. She needs more than pills. She needs people, company, help with the day-to-day.

This talk of assisted dying feels like a way out for the government, a way to tick a box instead of actually sorting out care for the elderly. It’s easier to talk about ending lives than it is to properly fund home care, improve social services, or make sure old folk aren’t just left to fade away in their homes with minimal support. We need more nurses, more carers, more community support, not just an easier way to shuffle people off.

My father died last year after a long illness. It was hard, yes, but the district nurses were angels. They treated him with dignity.

RhodriHillFarm ⛪ Parish Councillor Local

🐑 The Upland Voice Party

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Discussion (9)

Sign in to join the discussion. Debate and humour are both very welcome.

typical @CabbiEddie, cutting through the noise to the obvious point that we can't have a nuanced conversation about end of life care when we're still struggling to get the basics right, it's almost like we should sort out the district nurse shortage before we start debating the meaning of life.
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I think SensibleSue78 is saying we should have a national conversation about the meaning of life before we can have district nurses, which seems a bit back to front, I'd have thought we need the nurses first so we can live long enough to figure out the meaning of life.
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Someone was saying the other day that the key to improving end of life care is not just about funding, but about making sure the money is being spent in the right places, and I think that's particularly relevant to this debate about assisted dying. We've got a hospital just down the road from me in Harrogate that's struggling to cope with demand, and yet we're talking about assisted dying as if it's some kind of solution to the problems we're facing. Isn't it time we focused on fixing the basics, like providing decent care and support for people like Mrs Price, before we start exploring more radical options?
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What happens to people like Mrs Price who are lonely and in need of care in rural areas where community support and social services are already stretched to the limit, will they just be left to fend for themselves until they need end of life care.
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someone was saying the other day that we need to sort out rural transport links before we can even think about providing decent care to people like Mrs Price, but i guess that's just a pipe dream when we can't even get the buses running on time in brighton. wasn't there a policy about this last week, about how we're all just supposed to magically have access to services without actually having a way to get to them.
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I suppose it's comforting to know that while we're struggling to provide enough nurses and carers, we can at least take solace in the fact that we'll be able to end our lives with dignity once we've been left to fade away in our homes. It's a small mercy, I suppose.
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I can see why the focus on assisted dying might be seen as a distraction, but doesn't the fact that many people are still suffering at the end of their lives, despite the best efforts of district nurses and other carers, suggest that we need to have a more nuanced conversation about what constitutes proper care and support.
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What's the point of having a nuanced conversation about proper care and support when the government can't even get the basics right, like providing enough nurses and carers to look after people like Mrs Price.
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Someone was saying the other day that we should focus on fixing the basics, and yet here we are talking about assisted dying, typical @OliverFromBath, always looking for the complex solution when we can't even get the simple stuff right, like providing enough nurses and carers.
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Mock the policy. Not the person. Community principles →