Hospice funding crisis: an urgent message

Our Chief Executive, Helen Simmons, addresses the hospice funding crisis.

By Helen Simmons, Chief Executive of St Christopher’s

Growing numbers of people need hospice support – in the last year alone the number of home visits completed by our teams at St Christopher’s increased by 10%.

But many hospices – one in five – are either cutting specialist palliative and end of life services in the last year or plan to do so. Fortunately, we are not one of those at the moment.

However, just last week, three of our neighbouring hospices came together to call for an intervention from central government after their urgent and repeated requests from more NHS funding from the South West London Integrated Care Board (SWL ICB) were unsuccessful.

These warnings and cuts may have come as a surprise to many people.

I doubt it is a surprise to anyone working in hospice care.

NHS funding has failed to keep up with the increase in demand and expenditure. We are increasingly relying on people leaving gifts in wills, running marathons and donating clothes to deliver our core services.

The model is breaking.

My colleagues and I at St Christopher’s fully support St Raphael’s Hospice, Princess Alice Hospice and Royal Trinity Hospice, and the tens of other hospices across the country facing these difficult decisions.

We also support Hospice UK’s campaign to improve funding.

If no action is taken it will lead to poorer experiences for dying people and their families, and an increased demand on NHS and hospitals.

At St Christopher’s we receive 34% of our income from the NHS – for the remaining 66% we rely on the generosity of the community.

Hospices should not have to rely on the generosity of the community to provide essential healthcare services.

Many hospices across the country are being forced to cut or close services due to lack of funding. This only increases the inequalities that exist in end of life and palliative care.

We believe everyone should have access to good care and support at the end of life, no matter who they are or where they are.

That’s why we believe standard funding should be agreed per person across the country so everyone receives the same support.

Hospices give people at the end of life the comfort, dignity and independence they deserve for as long as possible, and the care and support they need to die well.

Our community – through their fundraising efforts – are doing their part.

The government must also do theirs.

Please join us and click here to send a letter to your local MP to let them know about the crisis.