A leading cancer care specialist in Bradford has welcomed calls by MPs to give terminally ill patients the right to choose to die at home.

The Commons Health Select Committee has found many terminally ill patients are being denied their wish to die at home and that specialist palliative care is patchy and not available to many.

The MPs are now calling on the Government to do more to ensure the wishes of dying patients are respected and the introduction of a statutory right to a period of paid leave for carers to tend terminally ill people before they die.

Dr Andrew Daley, a consultant in palliative care at Bradford's Marie Curie hospice in Maudsley Street, said the report was a major step forward in improving palliative care.

He said: "The committee has thrown down a real challenge to the Government to improve end-of-life care.

"Ministers must now take on board these realistic recommendations if the Government is to deliver on its promise that everyone should have the right to die at home."

Dr Daley said figures showed just 25 per cent of cancer patients in the Bradford district died at home, when 80 per cent had expressed a wish to do so.

A further 32 per cent die at the Marie Curie Hospice or at Manorlands Hospice in Oxenhope and 37 per cent die in hospital.

"For a lot of people, home is where they feel most secure and comfortable but equally it can be scary if you are at home with symptoms and no access to adequate nursing and medical care," he said.

Dr Daley strongly welcomed the idea of paid leave for carers as this would enable many more people to die at home with the support of family and friends, although there also had to be a good level of nursing care and better access to medical care and medication out-of-hours.

"Marie Curie nurses can offer nursing care but we have a limited budget and, although it is getting better, it still not enough," he said.

"We are not doing too badly for people with cancer but there should be the same level of care for people with other illnesses."

The report uncovered wide regional variations on access to palliative care with affluent areas served better than less affluent ones.

Tom Hughes-Hallet, of Marie Curie, said they had been asked to provide 20,500 nursing hours in North Yorkshire, which has a population of 886,000 while West Yorkshire, with a population of 2.3 million, has asked for just 11,000 nursing hours.

The committee also found black and ethnic communities were less able to access services and there was a "huge mismatch" between provision for cancer services and for other illness.

About a quarter of people will die of cancer, but more than 95 per cent of hospice services are taken up by cancer services; others who are terminally ill with diseases such as motor neurone disease or heart disease are unlikely to use specialist services.