A charity has warned that children’s hospice in England will be forced to cut services or shut unless the NHS increases its funding.
One of the hospices, Acorns, has said it will have no choice but to close later this year unless it can raise more than £1.5 million. If it closes this means more than 200 children would have no vital support or will be forced to travel long distances and 70 jobs will be lost.
BBC// Acorns
Together for Short Lives helps terminally ill children, it raised an issue of a “dangerous cocktail” of higher costs and a drop in state funding. In the report it examined funding for 27 of the 34 children’s hospices in England.
According to the charity, children’s hospices in England each spend an average of £3.7 million each year. The NHS funding contributed to the hospices has fallen from 27% to 21%, this means many have been forced to use their reserve funds or stop services.
The charity’s chief executive, Andy Fletcher, said: “The government’s contribution hasn’t kept pace with the cost of delivering hospice care. Children with life-limiting illnesses are living longer because we’re better at diagnosing and treating their conditions.”
The charity wants the NHS to increase the Children’s Hospice Grant from 12 million in 2019/20 to £25 million per year.
It has been said that the NHS funding is patchy with researching showing one hospice receiving 48% of its expenditure but another received 7%. One in six hospices said they had received no funding from their local commissioning groups in 2018/19.
An NHS England spokeswoman said: “NHS funding for children’s end of life care is going up every year and is set to more than double within the next five years, with up to £25m going in to care as part of the NHS Long Term Plan.
“We are working with local health groups – including councils which of course have an important role to play in these services – and Together for Short Lives to provide the kind of support that children and their families want.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Hospices have always been part-funded by local NHS organisations, and local areas are responsible for ensuring services they commission meet the needs of their communities. The NHS long-term plan prioritises improvements in children’s palliative care, and the NHS has committed to increase funding for these services, including hospices, by up to £7m a year.”
