BBC Midlands has exposed a regional crisis in hospice funding, and today we show our support for other hospices who have spoken on the topic (Birmingham Hospice and Mary Ann Evans) and call for sustainable funding.
Hospices across England are being forced to reduce services, restructure teams and make difficult choices as the cost of providing care continues to rise without a sustainable increase in statutory funding.
At The Shakespeare Hospice, NHS funding currently provides only around 12% of our income. The remainder must be raised through the extraordinary generosity of our local community, including donations, fundraising, gifts in Wills and income from our charity shops.
Funding discussions can easily become about percentages, budgets and shortfalls. But behind every figure is a person living with a life-limiting condition, a family trying to cope and a team of professionals working to provide care, comfort and dignity.
One of our supporters has shared their own message to the Prime Minister, explaining the difference The Shakespeare Hospice made to their family and why hospice care must be protected.
Lorna’s story is a powerful reminder that hospice care is not an optional extra. It provides essential clinical, practical and emotional support, helping people to remain at home where possible, supporting families through extraordinarily difficult circumstances and reducing pressure on already stretched NHS services.
Hospice UK reports that nearly 60% of hospices in England have made, or are considering, cuts to frontline services.
Last week we announced that we will temporarily pause our Day Hospice service while we review how best to provide sustainable care for the future. Our priority remains protecting the services on which local people most depend, including Hospice at Home, Adult Counselling, Complementary Therapies and Children and Family Support Services.
These decisions are not being made because the need for hospice care is reducing. Demand is growing, care is becoming more complex and the costs of employing specialist staff and delivering safe, high-quality services continue to rise.
We welcome investment in hospice buildings and facilities, but hospices also need fair, consistent and recurring funding to pay for the people and services that deliver care every day.
Not every hospice faces the same pressures. Funding varies significantly between areas, creating a postcode lottery in which some communities, and the patients and families within them, are underserved.
We are grateful for the Government’s recent capital investment, which helps fund vital improvements such as new heating and windows. But it cannot pay our nurses’ wages, energy bills or the everyday costs of caring for families.
Hospices will always rely on the generosity of their communities, but essential end-of-life care should not depend on where someone lives or how much their community can raise.
We are therefore calling for a fair and sustainable baseline of recurring funding, reflecting the true cost of providing hospice care and ensuring that patients and families can access the support they need, wherever they live.
