Exclusive: this is why the 102 signatures from Yorkshire healthcare professionals matters
The magnitude of the significance of the message sent today to the MPs of Yorkshire and beyond, by more than a hundred healthcare professionals from the county, cannot be overstated.
The letter, shared exclusively with this newspaper, runs to 102 signatories: doctors, nurses, pharmacists, consultants, surgeons – all of whom are united in warning MPs that the Terminally Ill Adults Bill, in its current form, is dangerous.
One element of their collective warning is stark: should this bill be passed, we, as a society in this country, will have moved to a place where quick and meaningful investment in assisted death would have to be prioritised whilst, to quote: palliative care services struggle for breath.
In other words, our minds, care, concentration and investment would be on expediting death over protecting and elongating life.
To be clear, this phalanx of Yorkshire healthcare professionals, those at the coal face of life and death on a daily basis, are not trying to close down the debate on assisted dying. Au contraire. What they are hoping to achieve, and The Yorkshire Post stands shoulder to shoulder with them on this, is more attention to the detail – of policy makers – in regards to the deep-rooted inequalities that put pressure on certain communities.
This letter is about fairness: is it fair that Kirkwood Hospice, due to funding shortages, was forced to make 19 people redundant recently, meaning it can now care for just 1,300 people per year - down from the previous 2,100. Who will care for the lost 800? Is it fair that Government funding for St Michael’s Hospice in North Yorkshire has been cut, over the course of the last five years, from almost 40 per cent to 28 per cent? Make no mistake, those signatories will have needed courage to speak up: their courage must now be met with a meaningful response.