Dorothy House features on BBC Panorama

Dorothy House will be featured in an upcoming BBC Panorama programme, airing at 8pm on BBC One on Monday 16 March.

The programme entitled, Assisted Dying – What next? explores the realities of hospice care, the financial pressures facing the sector, and the national conversation around assisted dying. 

BBC Panorama and Dorothy House programme synopsis

With assisted dying looking set to become one of the biggest social changes of modern times when MPs at Westminster voted in favour in June 2025, the bill covering England and Wales is now being held up in the House of Lords, and many of its supporters fear that it is running out of time. 

The BBC’s medical editor, Fergus Walsh, talks to leading supporters and opponents, and visits Dorothy House to talk to patients at the end of their lives. He travels to Western Australia, where voluntary assisted dying has been available since 2021, to meet one of the doctors who pioneered it and to see a patient preparing for an assisted death. Will assisted dying ever happen in the UK, and how would it work if it did?

Exclusive access

The Panorama programme is not an undercover investigation. Last autumn, we granted exclusive, access‑led permission for the BBC’s medical editor, Fergus Walsh and the Panorama team to spend time with patients, families and staff. As part of our vision of a society where death is part of life, the access was granted to help share honest and compassionate stories about end of life care and to highlight the urgent need for sustainable funding for hospices across the UK. Patient dignity, consent and care were paramount throughout filming, which took place with the full knowledge and approval of Trustees. 

Sustainable hospice funding

Wayne de Leeuw, Chief Executive of Dorothy House, said:

“This programme provided an important opportunity to show the reality of hospice care and the compassion and expertise of our teams, while also highlighting the urgent need for fair and sustainable funding for hospices. We hope it helps audiences better understand the care we provide, and the context in which we do so.”

James Byron, Director of Marketing & Engagement, said:

“Dorothy House is part of the Hospice UK Fair Funding For Hospices campaign. We’re calling on the Government to take an urgent first step towards our four-point plan by committing £112.5 million in recurring revenue funding from the next financial year onwards. This is the first part of the £450m we estimate it will cost to fully fund specialist palliative care delivered by hospices, like ours.  

Even if we are successful in this campaign, we will still need the support of our community to provide the holistic range of care people at the end of life deserve. If you can, please do donate to Dorothy House today.”

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK says:

“The Terminally Ill Adults Bill has generated more discussion about death and dying in the UK than ever before. Hospices are the undoubted experts in providing choice, dignity and compassion at the end of the life, and every day, staff working and volunteering hospices across the UK accompany patients and their families at the most challenging time of their lives.

Panorama’s exploration of death, dying, and the deeply complex and emotive topic of assisted dying is welcome. Over the next 15 years more people will die in the UK than ever before, the great majority of them will not have or need an assisted death, even if the law were to change. It is vital that the enduring legacy of the last two years of debate on assisted dying is a commitment to do much better for everyone in the UK at the end of their lives.

We are not where we need to be, people are dying in corridors, people are dying without pain relief, and lack of funds means hospices are cutting back services when they should be expanding them. High-quality palliative and end of life care must be available to everyone who needs it, and hospices be properly funded, to be there for everyone who needs them.”

Assisted Dying: a position of neutrality

We have been clear with the programme makers about Dorothy House’s neutral position on assisted dying, and this neutrality has been understood and respected throughout the production. Any personal views expressed in the programme belong solely to the patients and families involved. 

The documentary also reflects the wider context in which hospices operate, including the importance of equitable access to high‑quality palliative and end of life care for everyone, regardless of the ongoing public and parliamentary debate around assisted dying. 

Dorothy House maintains a neutral position on assisted dying because we believe this best enables us to care for everyone in our community. As a provider of compassionate end of life care, the Hospice supports patient choice and access to care within the boundaries of the law, while continuing to advocate for properly funded specialist palliative care so that real choice is available to all. 

Click here to find out more about the care we provide for our community.