A palliative care expert has said the situation around end-of-life care needs needs to be “fixed” before legalizing assisted dying can be considered.

Lawmakers across the country are set to vote on Friday to take the proposed bill to the next stage.

However, Dr Mike Blaber, consultant in palliative care at Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, said end-of-life care needed “urgent attention”.

It comes as hospices have warned that the sector is facing a financial crisis, although the Government has promised support.

“(The bill) is not about expanding options, because the option for excellent palliative care doesn’t exist right now; we need to fix that before we do anything else,” Dr. Blaber said.

The branch of medicine that seeks to relieve pain and improve the quality of life of terminally ill patients and in the best examples can make a huge difference For his and his family’s experience.

Dr Blaber is against moves to legalize assisted dying, and said, if a new law was passed, vulnerable patients without access to good quality palliative care could feel pressured to end their lives .

She said she encountered patients who did not want to be a “nuisance” and feared the law would put “subtle pressure” on people who feel palliative care is no longer an option.

Speaking to BBC Radio WM he said the sector was “grossly underfunded”.

St Giles Hospice in Lichfield warned in the summer that it was facing a £1.5million shortfall.

Its CEO Elinor Eustace said sustainable funding was a “must” to accommodate all people needing end-of-life care.

He said the parliamentary bill comes at a time when hospices face “increasingly challenging times”.

Birmingham Hospice also announced in June that it was closing beds and cutting staff numbers due to an estimated £2.4m budget shortfall, despite huge demand on its services.

many others Dharamshalas at National Level Are in similar situation.

Hospice UK, which represents the sector, has requested £110m in emergency funding.

It says, “High quality end-of-life and palliative care is not currently available to all who need it.” The demand is increasing.

The organization has called on lawmakers to support “more investment”.

Earlier this month, Health Secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC that following concerns over an increase in National Insurance (NI) employer contributions, he would “make sure we are protecting our hospices”. Budget, Hospices’ finances and their ability to help people will be negatively impacted.

“Caring for terminally ill people is not a burden, it is a privilege and that is what we should focus on,” Dr. Blaber said.

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