TERMINALLY ill people have become the latest victims of Tory austerity as hospices for the dying cut bed numbers, sack staff and reduce home services to patients.

Labour has pledged to create a new National Care Service which it says will include hospices.

But the national charity Hospice UK, representing 200 hospices across Britain, says many are now in crisis, that their finances “are in their worst state for 20 years” and are at a “critical point.”

At least a fifth of hospices have cut their services in the last year or are planning to do so, the charity said.

This means inpatient beds are being cut, staff are being made redundant and community services are being restricted, with fewer visits to dying patients in their own homes.

The charity said that the “modest” funding it receives from the government has not kept pace with increasing running costs.

It has asked supporters to write their MPs calling for more government support.

Hospice UK chief executive Toby Porter said: “Too many hospices are in crisis. 

"The small and wildly variable amount of state funding they receive has failed to keep pace with rising costs.

“Many hospices are therefore running deficits which can only mean one thing – more cuts to essential care services, or even service closures.

"We’re already seeing redundancies at some major hospices, usually those serving communities in more deprived parts of the UK, where charitable fundraising is harder.”

Deborah Paris, executive chair of Rowans Hospice in South East Hampshire, said it had requested “urgent, additional funding which “has not been forthcoming.”

Ms Paris said that as a result some staff had been made redundant and services cut, and warned that funding was a “postcode lottery.”

Jeremy Lune, chief executive of Prospect Hospice in Swindon, said: “At Prospect Hospice, we’ve had to reduce the number of beds in our inpatient unit to six, despite having room for 12.

“The need for our palliative and end-of-life care is growing, while funding is dwindling, creating an unsustainable situation.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said a new National Care Service would be created.

“The government is going to shift the focus of healthcare out of the hospital and into the community,” the spokesman said.

"We recognise that the care system, including hospices, will play a vital role in doing this."