Around 36,000 cancer patients in England are being denied their wish to die at home, new figures from Macmillan Cancer Support show.
This is the equivalent of almost three-quarters of all cancer sufferers, says the charity which is calling on the Government to make social care free for everyone in their final weeks.
The 2012 National Bereavement Survey from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed relatives and carers of cancer patients who died thought care in hospitals was often below the care received at home.
Some 63% of those whose loved one died at home rated the overall quality of care received as excellent or outstanding, compared to only 37% of those whose loved one died in hospital.
And 41% of people with terminal cancer were not always treated with dignity and respect by hospital doctors, the survey found.
Macmillan said too many people are still spending their last hours and days on hospital wards, two years after the Palliative Care Funding Review (PCFR) recommended free social care for those at the end of their life.
Ciaran Devane, chief executive of Macmillan Cancer Support, said: "As the Government makes up its mind about whether to fund and implement free social care at the end of life, thousands of people with terminal cancer are being left to die in hospital beds against their wishes.
"This is putting an unnecessary strain on our A&E departments because people are not getting access to social care for themselves or for their carers which would enable them to be cared for in the comfort of their own home.
"It's simply not good enough to pay lip service to this issue - we need to see action. If the Government wants the NHS to deliver world-class care at the end of life in the UK, it needs to start by giving people a real choice about where they die."
Lacey Phillips, 31, from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, whose father died of head and neck cancer in 2012, agrees.
She said: "Nobody explicitly told my dad he was at the end of his life or explained what might be available in terms of support.
"We would have liked to have been given more options on his care - what they could do, what he was entitled to or what potential costs might be involved. We would all have preferred him to die either at home or in a hospice, where he would have felt more comfortable."
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: "We are committed to improving and increasing the choice available for patients at the end of their life so they can choose where to spend their last days.
"As part of our work to improve end of life care, the current system for funding palliative care is being reviewed, with the intention to introduce a new system in 2015/16."
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