Charity-Dependent Hospices Fail to Meet Surging Demand for End-of-Life Care

In the UK as of November 2025, the hospice sector is facing a severe financial crisis that is compromising the quality of end-of-life care for thousands of patients. According to a recent National Audit Office report, two-thirds of adult hospices in England recorded a deficit in the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Across the country, hospices are being forced to make difficult decisions, cutting staff, reducing bed numbers, and slashing community services for dying people who wish to be cared for at home. This has created a "postcode lottery" of palliative care, where a patient's chances of receiving high-quality end-of-life support hinge on factors like the level of deprivation in their local area and the extent to which their NHS management prioritizes terminally ill patients.

The crisis has led to heartbreaking situations, such as an elderly veteran being diverted to a crowded A&E department instead of the hospice where he had hoped to spend his final days. Families are repeatedly being told there are no available hospice beds, and patients are suffering from missed doses of pain medication and other indignities.

Experts warn that this avoidable suffering is the direct result of political choices, as successive governments have failed to adequately fund palliative care. The NHS currently covers only about 30% of hospice costs, with the rest coming from charitable donations - a situation that would never be tolerated for other core healthcare services like neonatal care.