Legalising assisted dying will take 'time and money' away from rest of NHS, Wes Streeting says

Mr Streeting, writing on his Facebook page, said he could not ignore the concerns “about the risks that come with this Bill” raised by the Royal College of Psychiatrists, the Royal College of Physicians, the Association for Palliative Medicine and charities representing under-privileged groups.

The Government is neutral on the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill which cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday.

This would allow terminally-ill adults with less than six months to live to have an assisted death, if it is approved by two doctors and an expert panel.

Mr Streeting, who was one of the most senior opponents of the legislation, said: “Gordon Brown wrote this week that ‘there is no effective freedom to choose if the alternative option, the freedom to draw on high-quality end-of-life care, is not available.

“Neither is there real freedom to choose if, as many fear, patients will feel under pressure to relieve their relatives of the burden of caring for them, a form of coercion that prioritising good end-of-life care would diminish.’ He is right.

“The truth is that creating those conditions will take time and money.

“Even with the savings that might come from assisted dying if people take up the service – and it feels uncomfortable talking about savings in this context to be honest – setting up this service will also take time and money that is in short supply.

“There isn’t a budget for this. Politics is about prioritising. It is a daily series of choices and trade-offs. I fear we’ve made the wrong one.”

Prior to the vote, Mr Streeting told The Yorkshire Post there was no “money allocated” for assisted dying.

He said: “As the impact assessment showed, there may well be savings down the line, but there will nonetheless be upfront costs.

“Now, at the moment, there isn't money allocated to do that, and as ever, with any decisions the government is taking, there are choices and trade offs.”

Mr Streeting said his Department of Health and Social Care “will continue to work constructively with Parliament to assist on technical aspects of the Bill” as it goes through the House of Lords.

Spen Valley MP Kim Leadbeater, who steered the Bill through the Commons, said she hoped peers would not seek to derail the legislation, which could run out of parliamentary time if it is held up in the Lords.

She said: “I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.”

Paralympian and crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast: “We’re getting ready for it to come to the Lords and from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger.

“We’ve been told it’s the strongest Bill in the world, but to be honest, it’s not a very high bar for other legislation.

“So I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in.”