Victory – £ 125m boost for hospices

YOUR crusading Daily Express has secured a major victory for hospice funding, after the sector was promised an additional £ 125million this winter.

The Save Our Hospices campaign wants urgent help for thousands hit financially in the pandemic – and struggling facilities were yesterday pledged a windfall as part of the Government’s Covid Winter Plan, ensuring hospices have extra capacity.

Hospice UK chief executive Tracey Bleakley welcomed the boost: “Hospices have faced unprecedented financial challenges because of the pandemic, while caring for greater numbers of people than ever before and providing critical support to the NHS. Hospice staff, like their colleagues in the NHS, have responded with inspiring resolve to continue to provide world- class care.”

She said the cash “means these essential services can continue. It will help ensure no one who needs it goes without palliative and end- of- life care, whether at home or in a hospice. It will mean that hospices are there to relieve the pressure on the NHS through the hard winter months, reducing unnecessary admissions into hospital”.

The pandemic hit community fundraising which brings in around 70 per cent of hospice income. They lost £ 100million as charity shops closed and events were axed in the first three months of the crisis.

After the Daily Express revealed the scale of the problem, Hospice UK – the national charity for hospice care – backed the campaign. The typical adult hospice in England receives 32 per cent of its funding from government health budgets while children’s hospices pick up 17 per cent.

A Hospice UK survey found 93 per cent of centres feared people with end- of- life needs might miss vital support. More than two- fifths said they would have to cut services to patients with palliative and end- of- life needs. At the pandemic’s peak, hospices cared for 24,000 people a day – three times more than in 2019.

A Government spokesman said: “We are hugely grateful for the vital work hospices have continued to do... providing a crucial service delivering high- quality and dignified end of life care.

“More than £ 150million of additional funding has already been made available to support them this year and hospice shops have benefited from measures including zero business rates, business interruption loans and the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. We want to thank the Daily Express and its readers for shining a light on this important issue.”