Hospice UK has warned of a funding crisis and cuts to hospice services following the news that five hospices caring for terminally ill people have planned job cuts in the past two months due to financial pressures.
According to the BBC, St Giles Hospice, which runs community services and in-patient sites in the West Midlands, has started consulting staff this week on a reduction of 40 posts, including clinical roles, which could involve redundancies.
Hospice UK is calling on the government to provide urgent cash investment. A combination of factors, including energy bills, higher wage costs and limited NHS funding, is being blamed. Whilst North London Hospice is not currently considering cutting services, the situation is challenging.
Declan Carroll, Chief Executive at North London Hospice said: “Like so many in our community, we at North London Hospice are facing increasing financial challenges. The rise in our energy bills, coupled with the cost of living crisis has not only impacted on us, but also on our supporters and their capacity to donate. Our running costs now exceed £16m a year and around two thirds of this comes from donations from our supporters. Our local community relies on us, but we also rely on them, and never take their generosity for granted.
Our vision is to provide the best of life, at the end of life, for everyone, and we have a plan in place to ensure we can continue to deliver this for our patients. These are challenging times but instead of closing some services as other hospices have had to do, we are increasing our fundraising activities and going through a difficult but necessary transformation so that we remain sustainable for the future. This means that we will be able to continue to support our community whilst ensuring that we are better able to mitigate potential financial pressures ahead.”
