内容摘要：Sara Stanger told BBC Breakfast the parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were "relieved" that the criminal case was over and glad that a public inquiry would be held.

Sara Stanger told BBC Breakfast the parents of Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, Bebe King, six, and nine-year-old Alice da Silva Aguiar were "relieved" that the criminal case was over and glad that a public inquiry would be held.

But this hasn't always been the case - until recently the picture was very different.As recently as 2015, the UK was ranked the best country in the world for end-of-life care by the Economist Intelligence Unit. However, Association for Palliative Medicine president Dr Sarah Cox says: "That's not the case any longer. We're not getting the funding we need. But it is not just about money – it is the way services are organised."

There are many reasons people end up dying in hospital when they would have preferred to have done so at home. Palliative care staff I have spoken say when people are in their final weeks some decide they need to go to hospital as they become frightened or do not want to be a burden on their loved ones, while in other cases families believe that being in hospital will help prolong their relative's life.But, ultimately, the lack of palliative care is thought to be the crucial factor in most cases, experts say. And so accident and emergency departments in hospitals become the safety net.The Marie Curie report found around half of people in England and Wales end up going to A&E at least once in their final three months, and one in eight spend 30 days or more in hospital. And a hospital death is not always in the relative comfort of a bed on a ward.

Hospital palliative care doctor Dr Rachel Clarke says she can spend whole days in A&E trying her best to care for patients dying in resuscitation areas and in corridors. "It's a travesty people end their lives like that."Specialist palliative care is actually provided by a range of different organisations. "People receive it from hospitals, from community NHS teams, from social care and from hospices," says Dr Cox.

"But families tell us that there is a lack of coordination between the different parts of the system. People struggle to get the help they need and end up in hospital."

This is exactly what happened to Terry, who was rushed to hospital in an ambulance because of a fluid build-up related to his cancer two weeks before he died and never returned home. With better support at home, it is quite possible he would never have needed to be admitted.The matter was "urgent" due to increasingly cold weather and the significant impact on people "who are at risk of disconnection, and who are increasingly having to forgo adequate heating and cut other essential spending", the letter read.

“People do not understand, I do not understand how a Labour government has taken away the fuel allowance of millions of pensioners just as winter approaches," Graham added.The government said on Sunday millions of pensioners would "see state pensions rise by up to £1,700 this parliament" through its commitment to the triple lock.

It said more than a million pensioners would still receive the payment, with a 152% increase in pension credit claims, while some would benefit from the £150 warm home discount.Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer