St Helens and Knowsley hospice join call for more government support amid financial struggles
Willowbrook Hospice has revealed its facing a budget deficit
A St Helens and Knowsley hospice is joining calls for more statutory funding - amidst warnings that end of life care services are reaching financial crisis across the UK.
Willowbrook Hospice has revealed it's likely to be in deficit for the next 12 months - and is relying more heavily than ever on donations from the public.
The UK Hospice sector is reporting an estimated collective deficit of £77million for the 2023-24 financial year, according to Hospice UK's quarterly financial benchmarking survey.
Hospice UK said the shortfall was being driven by staffing costs as charitable hospices struggle to match NHS pay rises, with the majority of hospice spending going on salaries.
Alun Owen, Corporate Director at Willowbrook Hospice, said:
"It has been very challenging for many hospices and Willowbrook is not immune from that. We're luckily very, very well supported by a local community of St Helens and Knowsley, which is just as well, because we only receive around 29% of what we need through the NHS from the government.
"The other 71%, therefore, we've got to raise through our shops across St Helens and Knowsley or through our fundraising activities or generally people out there in the community wanting to raise funds for us.
"It's a constant ask"
"It's a constant ask going out there (to ask for community support), but if we don't do that, there will be a shortfall in the income that we have - and that means that the services we offer may well be at risk.
"We have recently been able to add something into the wage packet of our clinical staff, our nurses, because we weren't able to meet the same terms and conditions of the NHS with their much bigger budgets are able to meet, but we've managed to come to an agreement.
"We currently are fully staffed, but it was very difficult over the last six months to make sure when a couple of people left that we could actually attract folk and ask them to come and work for us.
"At the same time, we need to make sure that we're paying our staff who are raising these funds for us in financing, fundraising and all the people that support the organisation to our maintenance and housekeeping and catering stuff. So it's a real challenge and just getting the figures to add up is difficult for us.
"We are likely to have a deficit budget for the next 12 months, which means our income is not going to match our outgoing outgoings and that is going to put great pressure on our work for the next 12 months."
Leaders in the sector are calling on the government to provide more funding.
Mr Owen added:
"We'd like the government to at least recognise and acknowledge the importance of giving somebody a good death. There's nothing else you can do for somebody at that time, but you can make sure you can manage their symptoms, you can manage any pain they have and you can reassure them and then provide ongoing services to the family and friends left behind, such as bereavement services.
"But all those things take time and it costs money and to be able to do it properly then we do need that extra support. Many of the contracts and agreements that hospices have with the government were set years ago when those organisations set up over the years.
"The rising costs mean that that proportion that's actually given by the NHS has shrunk and that's the situation we, and many other hospices in the North West particularly, find ourselves in at the moment. So it's great pressure, but we're doing the best we can to keep going."
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said:
"We want everyone to have access to the high-quality, personalised palliative care that can make all the difference at such a difficult time.
"That's why we require all local NHS integrated care boards to commission end-of-life care services to meet their patients' needs.
"While the majority of palliative and end-of-life care is provided via GPs, hospitals and community health services, we recognise the incredibly valuable role the charity sector plays in providing hospice care and supporting loved ones.
"Most hospices are independent, charitable organisations with their own terms and conditions of employment.
"The Government has provided £60 million in additional funding, including to some hospices, to deliver one-off payments to over 27,000 eligible staff employed by non-NHS organisations."