A councillor tearfully told of her mother’s painful death as she called on more to be done to improve end-of-life care.

Independent Monique Bonney was speaking in a Swale council debate about future health needs in Kent and Medway.

The West Downs councillor described the agony of watching her mum Elaine, 73, die of pancreatic cancer at home.

She criticised the lack of out-of-hours care and explained how she’d be left hanging on the phone trying to get medical help.

“For seven hours my mum was left on a pump, screaming in agony. I have never ever had to deal with anything so stressful in my entire life."

Speaking about the Sustainability and Transformation Plan, she said: “There’s one big thing missing off it – death.

“Palliative out-of-hours care is absolutely appalling in Swale.

“When my mother was dying, there was one nurse and a driver trying to dash between Rodmersham and Eastchurch.

“For seven hours my mum was left on a pump, screaming in agony.

“I have never ever had to deal with anything so stressful in my entire life – to be on the end of a phone waiting for a doctor or nurse to turn up to try to treat my mother.

“You’re passed from pillar to post from the hospice, to the GP to the out-of-hours service – you can get no sense.

“If we take this plan on then something has to change – we cannot go on with two staff nurses at night.

“So if you’re going to die – don’t die at home in Swale, not at the moment.

“It is, quite honestly, the most cruel thing I’ve ever seen.”

She called on fellow councillors to make sure palliative and out-of-hours care were included in future plans as a priority.

And she criticised Swale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) for contracting out its services, making them unnecessarily complicated.

After speaking to friends, she found others had similar experiences with the out-of-hours service, adding: “There are definitely cracks there for patients to fall through.

“For all those poor people who have died in agony, without that care or social care either, we owe it to them – one thing is staying alive, but having a dignified death is another.

“I plead with you to do something about the appalling care we have in Swale.”

Cllr Bonney added that her aunt died six months later in a neighbouring borough and had a completely different experience under the Heart of Kent hospice in Aylesford.

She has since written a formal complaint to MP Gordon Henderson and to Swale CCG, which acknowledged there were staffing shortages the weekend in February when her mother died.

Dr Fiona Armstrong, chairman and clinical leader for Swale CCG said: “We were extremely sorry to hear that in this particular case, community providers did not meet the standard we all strive towards.

“Since this came to light, the CCG, local community healthcare providers, hospital trusts and patient representatives have set up the Medway and Swale End of Life Programme Board.

“The board aims to provide better information and education for patients and carers, to improve joined-up working amongst providers and ensure patient experiences are fed into a full review of end-of-life care in Swale.

“The CCG, and all parties involved in the board, remain fully committed to making sure that families coping with losing a loved one, do not suffer any further difficulties in accessing the right care and support when they need it most.”