TERMINALLY-ILL patients in Bury are being given unnecessary treatment to prolong their lives and should be allowed to die with dignity, says a consultant.

Dr Mike Finnegan, an expert in palliative care, claims that doctors are failing to recognise that death is inevitable for some patients suffering from chronic disease. As a result they are being "over treated", he says.

Now he is calling for a specialist palliative care unit to be built as part of Bury's new hospital at Fairfield to provide improved and alternative care for dying patients.

Dr Finnegan (44), who has been a consultant in palliative care at Bury General Hospital for more than three years, said that excellent palliative care is provided at Bury Hospice for patients dying of cancer. But he claims that sometimes care given to non-cancer patients dying of diseases on acute wards in hospital is "not very good".

Although the hospice is not exclusively for cancer patients, about 90 per cent of its admissions are cancer sufferers. The hospice has five beds and caters for a population of more than 180,000.

"We need improved facilities in Bury. At the moment most non-cancer patients can only go to hospital as they have no alternative. Whilst the level of treatment on an acute ward is excellent, a busy acute environment is sometimes not the best place for a patient needing comfort, dignity and privacy at the end of their life." He continued: "There is a recurring trend that hospital doctors simply do not recognise that patients are dying. I once saw a man on the ward who had four drips coming out of him, and expensive drugs were being used to stimulate his heart and blood pressure when really they should have turned everything off to let the poor chap die in peace."

Dr Finnegan proposed the 12-15 bed palliative unit. If it goes ahead it would be only the second in the country established to improve care for terminally-ill patients.

His proposal has the backing of hospital managers at Bury Health Care NHS Trust, responsible for running local hospitals. But finding the extra cash will be a problem. Running costs alone are estimated at £250,000 a year.

"The trust has no extra cash so we are looking at other sources, such as the Cancer Macmillan Fund which gave money to the first ever unit being set up in Sheffield. Government money or Lottery cash are other possibilities," said Dr Finnegan.

He wants the unit to be separate from the hospital and provide a peaceful environment where patients die with privacy and dignity and get the medical treatment and support they need.

"Medicine is about saving life and treating the symptoms where life cannot be saved. The unit would offer patients a place where they could receive comfort and dignity rather than aggressive treatments in the terminal stages of their disease."

He added: "If we get funding the unit will hopefully open in 2002."

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