Hospice Leaders Warn Hundreds Of Beds Out Of Use

[naomi24]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clykz68zexpo

 

Hospices do a fantastic job in providing a vital service.  Should they be reduced to scratching around for funding?  Not in my opinion.  

 

[Khandro]

At first glance I thought the OP said; Hospice Leaders Warm Hundreds Of Beds...

[nicebloke1]

Government are already looking at the situation for funding.

[davebro3]

I'm sure Labour will borrow enough to help out.

[Cloverjo]

Of course they shouldn't be scratching around for funding. My mum spent the last few weeks of her life in a hospice. The staff were all lovely and it was a nice place to visit. I honestly don't think my dad would still be alive if my mum didn't have that place. 
Hospices should be fully financed by the state.

 

[Canary42]

That's a typical legacy of years of Tory rule.

[Cloverjo]

It feels like in the near future it will be a choice between being fully fit or 'pop your clogs before you become a burden.'

Scary.

[Togo]

//That's a typical legacy of years of Tory rule./

^^Deliberately misleading statement again! Is this supposed to be a fact based site or not?

""The majority of hospices were established from charitable and philanthropic donations and are primarily charity-funded and independently run. However, they receive some statutory funding from the NHS and central Government.

NHS commissioning of palliative and end of life care, including hospices, is largely the responsibility of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs). NHS England has developed Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Networks, and in July 2022 they published statutory guidance for ICBs on palliative and end of life care. These are intended to support ICBs to fulfil their legal duty to commission palliative and end of life care services that meet the needs of their population.""

https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2023-0045/

[Togo]

Also note that hospice care is not just an end of life regime. It is also a place for respite or a period of recovery after illness or hospitalisation. The last people I would want to be handling the admin or policy control in these places would be Starmer and his bunch of sociopaths. They would indeed become the abbatoirs of the elderly and the means to reduce the numbers of retired people through coercion or stealth. Shipman would be green with envy. 

[nicebloke1]

You mean like the sociopath abbatoirs that Matt Hancock created. What a short memory you have. 11.56

[chelle7272]

//they receive some statutory funding from the NHS and central Government.//

 

Yes but less than a third of their funding comes from government, absolutely not enough.
Shockingly even less for childrens hospices:

Local NHS and council funding for children’s hospices in England is falling

Currently ICB and local authority funding is patchy and nowhere near the level that will sustain the crucial hospice services that children and families need.

In 2023/24, children’s hospices received, on average, nearly 10% less funding from ICBs compared to 2022/23 and over a third (31%) less funding when compared to 2021/22. In 2022/23, each children’s hospice received an average of £524,278 from their local ICBs. However, in 2023/24, they received an average of £477,677.

Overall, ICB funding represents about 11% of the charitable expenditure incurred by children’s hospices in 2023/24, down from 13% in 2022/23.

We have also found that over the past year, local authority funding for children’s hospices has fallen by 26% from average of £149,939.92 in 2022/23 to £110,767.56 in 2023/24.

Local authority funding now accounts for approximately 2.6% of children’s hospices’ charitable expenditure.

https://www.togetherforshortlives.org.uk/changing-lives/speaking-up-for-children/policy-advocacy/childrens-hospice-funding-in-uk/#:~:text=Local%20NHS%20and%20council%20funding%20for%20children';s%20hospices%20in%20England,of%20children's%20hospices'%20charitable%20expenditure.

[youngmafbog]

And how much extra EHI nwill they be stumping up?

[Togo]

Our local authority(labour) withdrew substantial funding for the local Hospice establishments but is spending £Millions on cycle lanes and road narrowing schemes at the same time. The bills for the traffic light contracts, which incidentaly spend weeks in operation with no work being carried out at all, is probable more than they spent on Hospice funding. Do you know to what extent  your local authority fund the Hospices? If not then find out. Have you ever donated to a local Hospice? If not why not. 

[Old_Geezer]

Seems to be a health issue, or at least a, near end of health issue, to me.  Should be part of the NHS responsibilities.

[Peter Pedant]

a bed isnt a bed - you have to have the staff to run it. Chrissakes we were saying that in the seventies

Cicely S kicked off in the early seventies and was totally charitably funded. Then the big bad govt came along and said "Oh we will do a bit!" and then when things got tight they said "Oh we wont now!  no lula"

The charity I was involved in had in its memorandum of association, never more than 10% income from the gubmint