A Marie Curie report has revealed that many people in Newcastle are dying in poverty, highlighting severe inequalities in end-of-life care and the financial hardships faced by terminally ill residents.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00In a country with advanced health care and one of the largest economies in the world a hidden
00:06crisis is quietly unfolding every year thousands of people across the UK are spending their final
00:11days not in comfort but in poverty and here in Newcastle the situation is especially stark
00:17according to a new report from the charity Marie Curie almost a quarter of people who die in the
00:22city are living below the poverty line when they pass that's around 23% of all deaths it's a figure
00:31that includes one in five pensioners and even more shockingly 40% of working age adults who are
00:37terminally ill the dying in poverty 2024 report developed in partnership with Loughborough university
00:43lays bare the final struggles facing many people at the end of their life as income drops and care
00:49needs grow many individuals and their families find themselves overwhelmed by bills reduced earnings
00:55and unexpected costs of home-based care Marie Curie says the number of people dying in poverty
01:01across the UK has risen sharply up from 93 000 in 2019 to more than 110 a year today and it's not
01:10just about income it's about the resources dignity and comfort available to people as they reach the
01:16end of their lives in Newcastle the picture is especially concerning the charity estimates that
01:22590 terminally ill people in the city each year miss out on the pallet of care they need this lack of
01:28access often leads to greater strain on emergency services with data showing that 8.6 percent of
01:34deaths in Newcastle and Gateshead involves three or more emergency hospital admissions in the final 90
01:40days of life well above the national average of 6.2 percent campaign has warned that without
01:46intervention these patterns will only worsen rising living costs gaps in social care and limited access
01:53to welfare support have left many people falling through the cracks Marie Curie is now urging Newcastle
01:59City Council to step in and do more to help but what do locals think of these new findings
02:05well i guess it's it's been tough recently like in the news about um cutting like the bill support
02:13um for pensioners and i do feel obviously it's like puts more pressure on pensioners and nobody wants
02:19like when you think of your grandparents you don't want them worrying about money late in life
02:24um mostly because so i know that obviously like my nana is not exactly in poverty but i know that she's
02:30had some struggles with um like the area that she lives in the the condition of like a living
02:36permissions in like a house and stuff and she has complained a few times about like raising prices of
02:40like possible living and everything and she doesn't talk too much about there being support and we're
02:47always looking at the ways that we can do something ourselves so but obviously we don't get that
02:52support to help her so i'd honestly say there's a lot more that could be done um especially for older
02:58people in the population of course