Eleven people in Scotland die in pain each week, despite access to top palliative care, new research has found.
The report from Dignity in Dying, which campaigns for assisted dying, said that a small but significant minority of people will “suffer intolerably” throughout the final months, weeks and days of their lives.
It found that even if every dying person who needed it had access to the level of care currently provided in hospices, 591 people in Scotland a year would still have no relief from their pain in the final three months of their life.
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The research found that 41 per cent of members of the public questioned had witnessed a dying family member or friend suffer “unbearably” towards the end of their life.
Ally Thomson, director of Dignity in Dying Scotland, said: “Even the best care has limits.”
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