Wiltshire hospice face losing over £1 million amid calls for Government action

A pair of Wiltshire hospices have told Greatest Hits Radio they face financial turmoil as palliative care organisations brace for record losses.

It's sparked debate in Parliament as Hospice UK estimates the charities it represents are set to lose a collective £77 million in 2023-24 financial year.

Children's Hospice Julia's House, based in Devizes, and Prospect Hospice are both calling for Government intervention.

Julia's House say they're staring at a £1.5m loss, while Prospect, which runs end-of-life services in Pewsey, are contemplating a loss of just over £1m.

"That's not sustainable," said Julia's House CEO, Martin Edwards.

He added: "We need the government to put in place a better safety net for these vital services, which are keeping a lot of patients out of hospital."

Prospect Hospice CEO Jeremy Lune told GHR that the situation is 'starting to get quite serious'.

"I think a lot of people assume that we are part of the NHS or wholly funded by the NHS. The reality is we're not," he said."

Mr Lune added: "We do receive an amount of funding from the NHS. It's currently £1.6 million, which might sound a great deal of money to a lot of people, of course, but in real terms, that hasn't increased for the last couple of years and indeed for it's stayed flat for the last 10 years."

Mr Edwards said the Government had properly recognised the role hospices play during the pandemic, saying the short term increase to funding was " suddenly an honest recognition of how much hospices save the system."

Both Mr Edwards and Mr Lune feel the debate being held by politicians can lead to a positive outcome.

'We're running out of money'

Mr Lune told us how they've been forced to reduce the amount of bed space thy can offer.

With a maximum of 12 beds in their building, but are operating at just 50% of that.

"We did go up to 8 which was generously funded during the the winter months by our community, but we're running out of money, so we've already had to cut to six."

He said they're expecting to lose £1m 'if everything goes to plan' but said there's an increasing demand for their services due to an ageing population.

"More people are living with more and more life, limiting conditions which require complex care," he said, adding: "The funding is just not reflecting that anymore."

Mr Lune said many of us are aware of the pressures on the NHS and is imploring the government to give hospices the funding that would ease the pressure on other health care sectors.

"If hospices have the funding that allows them to be involved and provide support in people's homes and in the community, it takes the pressure off all of those things, so to ignore that feels really short sighted to us."

MP debate and Government statement

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."

MPs will debate hospice funding in the House of Commons on Monday during a backbench business debate called by Peter Gibson.

The figures in Hospice UK's financial benchmarking survey are based on nine months of accounts for the financial year 2023-24 from a sample of 86 hospices.

They are extrapolated to be representative of the entire UK hospice sector, which supports 300,000 people annually.

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, smartspeaker, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Rayo app.