Health Secretary Wes Streeting has confirmed the biggest investment in a generation for hospices, ensuring that hospices such as Mountbatten Isle of Wight can continue to deliver the highest quality end-of-life care possible for their patients, families and loved ones.
Earlier this week Wes Streeting said he would make an announcement before Christmas, which came when pressed by Joe Robertson MP, Isle of Wight East MP and member of the Health and Social Care Committee.
There has been mounting pressure from Parliament, charities and sector groups urging the government to address the rising costs caused to health and social care providers by the Employer National Insurance Contribution (NICs) increase announced budget earlier this year.
Across the sector, health organisations have been sounding the alarm about the rise in NICs and the additional financial strain it will place on them. The Nuffield Trust estimates that social care providers will face an additional £900million in costs through NIC rises alone. Community Pharmacy England expects a £50million cost for community pharmacies, while the BMA warns the policy could siphon £260million from the national GP budget—equivalent to 2,000 full-time GPs.
Yesterday, the Government announced that £100million of funding will help hospices in this year and next to provide the best end-of-life care to patients and their families in a supportive and dignified physical environment.
Hospices for children and young people will also receive a further £26million revenue funding for 2025/26 through what until recently was known as the Children’s Hospice Grant.
But Nigel Hartley, Chief Executive of Mountbatten, has said that the devil will be in the detail:
“While Mountbatten is grateful to hear some funding will be made available for the critically important hospice sector, the devil will be in the detail and this will not be made available until the new year.
Article continues below this advertisement “There appears to be no mention in today’s announcement about funding to retain our existing clinical staff or to employ new clinical staff, in order to support the growing number of people who need hospice care. There is no promise to cover the costs of forthcoming National Insurance increases, future NHS pay awards and the growing demands on services, which become more critical, year-on-year.
“At Mountbatten, there has been a 250 per cent rise in people receiving care at home in recent years and this is set to rise further.
“The government says it is committed to moving healthcare into the community. It says the palliative and end-of-life care sector, including hospices, will have a big role to play in that shift. Mountbatten already delivers these services 24/7, in homes across the Isle of Wight and Hampshire, and utilises huge amounts of charitable income towards this, as current NHS funding is not sufficient to sustain the level of need, let alone to expand.
“There are already times when we cannot respond in the way we want or in the ways people need and deserve, because we simply do not have the staff resources to do it. It is not an option to ignore those at their most vulnerable.
“We are happy the government has highlighted the exceptional and much-needed work of hospices and are grateful for their response to the urgent need. However, we eagerly await more about what today’s announcement will mean in reality and would urge the government to ensure it invests in skilled hands-on staff — expert nurses, doctors and community care teams — enabling hospices to employ more such staff in the future, alongside buildings and infrastructure.
“Being able to afford skilled staff must remain the priority, for the immediate and foreseeable future.”
Reacting to the news, Joe Robertson MP has said:
“I am pleased the Government has finally made an announcement on better funding for hospices which will help Mountbatten here on the Island. Along with GP practices, community pharmacies and social care providers, hospices have faced weeks of uncertainty following the Budget which squeezed them with National Insurance tax rises.
“On Wednesday, the Health Secretary Wes Streeting promised to make funding announcements for GPs, pharmacies, and social care providers by the end of January when I questioned him at Select Committee, so I look forward to those announcements soon. Non-NHS providers do not directly benefit from NHS spending from Government, but they do face the costs of healthcare staff pay awards, inflation and national minimum wage rises. That is why these separate funding announcements are so important and have been too long coming.
“I am pleased to have been able to work with Mountbatten locally, and with cross-party colleagues including on the Health and Social Care Select Committee nationally, to help persuade the Government to act and give certainty to hospices before Christmas.”
Richard Quigley MP, for Isle of Wight West, has said:
“This is great news for hospices up and down the country and especially for our own Mountbatten hospice. Hospice care is vital to the overall health service and I’m extremely pleased our government is acting in a supportive and responsible way to ensure the best quality care is delivered.”
