NHS to give £400,000 more to town’s hospice after campaign
A WEST Yorkshire hospice has secured £400,000 of extra funding following a campaign for more financial support from the NHS.
The Prince of Wales Hospice, in Pontefract, was given the boost after calls were made for its contribution to the health and care system to get greater recognition.
Hospice management and Yvette Cooper, MP for Normanton, Castleford and Pontefract, said that the hospice’s NHS grant agreement was based on “outdated calculations”.
They argued that the grant failed to recognise the growth in the hospice’s work and the rising costs of delivering specialist palliative care.
Wakefield District Health and Care Partnership (WDHCP) awarded the hospice an extra £200,000 from April as part of a reset of its financial plan.
The hospice will receive a further £200,000 in April 2025.
Ms Cooper said she told the partnership more funding was needed so the hospice was comparable with similar organisations.
She said: “We have raised over a number of years that our NHS grant agreement was based on outdated calculations. It recognised neither the rising costs of delivering specialist palliative care nor the extent of their contribution to the health and care system.”
Ms Cooper added: “This funding boost for Prince of Wales Hospice is vital and it is great to see it come through. Families across our area know the heroic work the hospice does to help people at the hardest times in their lives. But that is why it was so important to get them this extra funding from the NHS so they could carry on helping families in their hour of need.
“Much of the support for Prince of Wales comes from local fundraising and we need to keep that going as the NHS doesn’t cover the cost of the incredibly important care they always provide. But the strength of fundraising we always have from our local communities shows just how much Prince of Wales hospice is valued and this extra NHS funding matters so much too.”
Sharon Batty, director of income generation and marketing at the hospice, said: “The uplift of £400,000 over the next two years is a great boost for us and it recognises the significant underfunding we have previously received.”
Jo Webster, accountable officer at WDHCP, said: “This additional investment reflects the considerable contribution the hospice makes to the local health and care system.
“While there is more work to do to strengthen commissioning of palliative and end of life care services across the district, we are pleased that the hospice can continue to provide specialist care and support to our communities with improved financial security.”
It comes after leaders of end-of-life charities joined forces to demand a new funding model for palliative care from the next government to ensure they can meet demand. Chief executives of Hospice UK, Marie Curie, National Bereavement Alliance, Sue Ryder, and Together for Short Lives have written to the leaders of political parties and warned that many people are dying in avoidable pain, with their families “left stressed, exhausted and traumatised”.