County hospice representatives visit Downing Street to lobby Prime Minister
Representatives from Leicestershire’s LOROS hospice joined colleagues from across the country today (Wednesday) in directly lobbying the Prime Minister to give them more support after to having to make significant service cuts.
LOROS CEO, Camilla Barrow, and nurse, Lisa Holford, visited Downing Street along with staff from 23 hospices in England to hand deliver a letter to Sir Keir Starmer calling for fairer funding for specialist palliative care.
It was all part of Hospice UK’s Day of Action and comes at a crucial time for hospices, with 75 per cent reporting that they are running a deficit this year and with 380 beds across England’s hospices currently out of use, according to Hospice UK.
All 23 hospices who visited Downing Street, including LOROS Hospice, have been forced to make cuts to patient services in the past year.
LOROS had to reduce many of its services last summer and, although it has managed to reopen some of the beds it closed, seven out of a total of 31 remain out of use and reductions have been made to its day hospice, physiotherapy, counselling and more.
Camilla commented: “Last year we faced a £2M deficit which forced us to cut provision for patients and their families.
"The brutal reality of these cuts is that people are waiting longer for our care.
"People at the end of their lives do not have time to wait.
“We could be doing so much more.
"Instead we’re doing less and our colleagues in the NHS are put under more pressure whilst patients are dying in settings often inappropriate to their needs.
“Hospices like ours provide essential, specialist palliative care, and funding it fairly is vital.
"I hope the Prime Minister is listening.”
Hospices are calling for a four-point plan which will provide the sector with the financial stability it requires – full funding of specialist palliative care provided by hospices; proper NHS contracts for hospices; funding to cover the cost of NHS pay rises for hospice staff; national accountability for equitable provision of palliative care, wherever you live.
Toby Porter CEO of Hospice UK, said: “Hospice care services across the UK are under pressure like never before.
"Nearly six in 10 hospices have already made or are considering cuts to their frontline services.
“Desperately needed hospice beds are shut as hospices can’t afford to staff them, and specialist community visits in people’s homes are decreasing when they should be going up.
"This all pushes more pressure back on to an already overloaded system.”
On the visit to Downing Street, he added: “We’re bringing hospices who have already made cuts to Westminster to remind the government that the people needing hospice care can’t wait.
"We must act now to prevent further cuts to the care that people need at the end of their lives.
“We’re calling on the government to take urgent action by agreeing to implement Hospice UK’s four-point plan for fair hospice funding, including fully resourcing the specialist palliative care we deliver.
“The government can secure a first major step towards this by committing £112.5M in additional recurring revenue funding.
"This would prevent more hospices having to make devastating cuts and allow them to continue delivering the vital care that patients and families rely on.”