Care providers in England would be “dangerously unprepared” if assisted suicide were to become law, with only 13% stating they would be able to manage assisted suicide in their homes, according to new polling conducted by the largest social care representative body in the country.
The polling, conducted by Care England, found that “84% of providers said they had not been consulted on the Bill or its implications”, with over a third of providers stating that their staff would not be willing to participate in the process of assisted suicide at all.
Only 13% of providers stated that they would be able to manage assisted suicide in their homes, with 24% saying staffing would become very difficult as many staff would conscientiously object, with a further 16% expressing similar concerns.
The polling results come the day before Second Reading of the assisted suicide Bill in the House of Lords on Friday, 12 September.
Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, said “providers [of care] remain uncertain of their role and dangerously unprepared for what lies ahead” if assisted suicide were to become law, stating that “the Bill could present significant challenges for providers and staff working with people in care settings”.
Care England stated that the polling results “point to a sector that is largely under consulted, uncertain, and unprepared for the Bill in its current form.”
These issues posed by the potential legalisation of assisted suicide would aggravate an already dire situation, in which, according to Care England, the care sector faces high vacancy rates and low retention.
Palliative care specialists criticise assisted suicide
Care England is not alone in their worries about the assisted suicide Bill. Palliative care doctors are warning that end-of-life care is unable to cope with a rise in demand and that palliative care requires significant investment.
In England, palliative care services are in crisis, with Marie Curie reporting that 100,000 people are dying each year needing palliative care but not receiving it.
Dr Matthew Doré, the honorary secretary of the Association for Palliative Medicine, warned of the dangers of putting too much faith in the six-month provision in the Leadbeater assisted suicide Bill. He said “Under assisted dying laws … lives would have been tragically cut short – and we would never have known”.
“Can we accept a reality where one in five people might miss three more Christmases with loved ones due to the inherent uncertainty of medical prognoses?”.
Professor Katherine Sleeman, a specialist in palliative care, echoed Doré’s concerns, stating that “It is not possible to accurately determine someone’s prognosis as a number of months”.
She said “When someone has only a few days, or certainly only a few hours left to live, it can be easier to understand with a higher degree of certainty that they’re likely to die within that time-frame. But when we’re getting into the territory of months, it is very, very difficult.”
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff, a former professor of palliative medicine, said “Predicting life expectancy is impossible… I have known people who live well and actively for years after they were thought to have no more than a few weeks to live”.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “This new polling lays bare the reality that care providers in England would not be able to cope if assisted suicide were to become law, for they are already struggling to cope”.
“Alongside this, it is clear that many of those who work in the care sector are entirely opposed to assisted suicide, with many of them stating that they would be unwilling to carry out assisted suicide procedures at all”.
“The most vulnerable in our society deserve our unwavering protection and the highest standard of care, not a pathway to assisted suicide. Evidence from overseas shows that, if this legislation becomes law, countless vulnerable people nearing the end of life would be pressured or coerced into ending their lives”.
