Liberal Democrat MP for Leeds North West Greg Mulholland, has backed a campaign by the charity Sue Ryder for better end-of-life and palliative care being available round the clock.

The Dying Doesn’t Work 9 to 5 campaign has found through freedom of information requests that only 8% of local health services provide a comprehensive package of round-the-clock support which includes a specialist helpline and coordination service. Yet research by Populus has found that 82% of people expect that support and advice should be available 24 hours a day for those who are dying.

Sue Ryder, who run the Wheatfields hospice in Headingley, in Mulholland’s constituency, already run a 24-hour palliative expert support service and have found that 50% of calls received are outside the standard 9am-5pm service delivery hours. Mulholland has added his name to a parliamentary motion calling for better end-of-life and palliative care.

The charity’s research of 180 clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) has rated Leeds West CCG and Leeds North CCG as “red”, saying that neither have a dedicated round-the-clock palliative helpline for patients and carers, or a dedicated palliative round-the-clock coordination service.

Commenting, Greg Mulholland said:

“We know that the majority of people want to die at home, where they are in a familiar environment and surrounded by their loved ones. Sadly this is not possible for around half of people who want that option. This is why we need emotional support and palliative care to be available round-the-clock and I welcome the Sue Ryder campaign to highlight this very important issue. The Wheatfields hospice in Headingley, run by Sue Ryder, already do fantastic work in providing end of life care and supporting families, so I hope that local health services around the country will listen to the campaign and improve their range of services for those needing end-of-life or palliative care.”

Heidi Travis, Chief Executive of Sue Ryder, also said:

“We at Sue Ryder firmly believe that people who are dying, their carers and their families should be able to access the care they want, when they want.

“Unfortunately many areas of the country simply don’t have the services in place to make this ambition a reality.

“Yet services like our local Partnership for Excellence in Palliative Support (PEPS), which is built around giving patients a single point of contact to help ensure a co-ordinated service, has proven that this is possible to achieve.”