Nurses urged to ‘wrap up heat’ when visiting terminal sufferers residing in ‘crippling’ chilly

Nurses working with terminally ill patients are being told to ‘wrap up warm’ when they visit their patients who are living in “crippling” cold conditions.

Marie Curie registered nurse Denise Sinkins, 58, from Cornwall, described the “insulting” conditions patients endure to save money – with one dying mum surviving on just Weetabix. Another man would have died “cold and alone” had they not arrived to help him during his final hours.

She spoke out as end-of-life charity Marie Curie revealed as many as 44,000 terminally ill pensioners across Great Britain will lose the Winter Fuel Payment. New government rules say only those in receipt of means-tested benefits like Pension Credit are eligible for the winter payment boost, worth up to £300.

Helen van Bueren, 77, from Derbyshire, who has Multiple Myeloma, is one of those who has lost her Winter Fuel Payment. She said: “When the cold starts to creep in, my feet turn white, go numb and stop working completely. I can’t feel anything. I fumble, I drop things and there are walking sticks scattered all over the house in case I fall.

“The cold is crippling. It seeps into your bones and sits there. It consumes you. With each year that passes, I feel myself fading a little more.

“I’m just over the limit for Pension Credit so I won’t get my winter fuel allowance anymore and I do wonder if I will see the other side of this winter.”

People dying often see a rise in their energy costs, which can double as they need to constantly heat homes to provide relief from pain. There is also extra washing and drying clothes, and more power needed to charge and run life sustaining medical devices.

Marie Curie nurse, Denise, added: “Last winter there was a chap in his 80s with no family and he was desperate to go home from hospital to die. But he had obviously neglected himself because he was so poorly. All he had was a bed and heater in his living room. There was no light in the kitchen, so the nurse was using her torch on her phone. It was freezing.

She said he didn’t even have a heater or a kettle until a separate care agency bought them for his final hours. “I managed to get a member of the night staff in there and he did die overnight. If we hadn’t got there he would have died in the cold, in the dark and alone.”

And she warned: “This winter is going to be even harder because that payment has stopped. I’m very worried. They are going to suffer, it is going to be; ‘Am I going to put the heating on?’ or ‘Am I going to be able to eat?’.

Marie Curie uncovered the “stark” figures after an FOI request they found out the number of people claiming multiple benefits under the Government’s Special Rules for Terminal Illness, against those not in receipt of Pension Credit. The charity is urging the UK Government to guarantee any person with a terminal illness, whether they are of pension age or working age, receives the Winter Fuel Payment.

Dr Sam Royston, Executive Director for Policy and Research at Marie Curie, said: “No one should have to face their final days worrying about money or whether they can afford to heat their home or even switch on Christmas lights… The government should urgently rethink this decision, and take further steps to support people at the end of life with energy costs, including by introducing a social tariff.”

Denise added: “It’s just so sad. They are struggling to keep warm, they are struggling to eat. It is just an insult because some of them have fought in the Second World War, they’ve gone through rationing to where we are now.

“We do advise our staff to take extra layers with them and go with leggings on so they can keep themselves warm – as well as the patient – because they have to be careful with their energy bills now. A lot of these older people are in granite cottages which are notoriously cold or concrete blocks from the 70s and 80s.”

Marie Curie’s recent Dying in Poverty report recently revealed 128,000 people are dying in fuel poverty each year. That’s more than one in five of all people who die and includes 110,000 pensioners.

Marie Curie also want to see a social tariff to ease fuel poverty. Calculations show that a social tariff that halves energy bills could lift as many as 54,000 (45%) dying people out of fuel poverty.