Hospicesface crisisas fundsfall andcosts soar

Martin Slack

HOSPICES in Yorkshire are warning of job losses and a reduction in services after a management team revealed it had been forced to make cuts to balance its books.

Sheffield’s St Luke’s Hospice is cutting the number of beds it has for end-of-life care in the city from 24 to 20, after managers said they had been running a deficit for two years which “could not continue”.

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It had been looking to move to a larger site but yesterday said this had now been scrapped and it would be making redundancies to combat the “double impact of the recession and increasing operational costs”.

Hospices are subject to complicated funding arrangements, which are under review by a team appointed by the coalition Government, which is due to report in 2011.

But management teams across Yorkshire are warning their immediate future looks uncertain in the face of expected Government budget cuts and continuing financial pressures on donors, upon whom they rely.

St Luke’s chief executive Peter Hartland said funding from the NHS had decreased significantly over seven years.

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“The recession has hit St Luke’s hard, with falling property values reducing the value of legacies and low interest rates reducing the income we get from investments,” he said.

“On top of that, although NHS Sheffield continues to support and help us, the real value of their funding has declined from covering 41 per cent of our costs in 2003 to about 30 per cent in 2010.

“Our services to our patients, their families and carers are, and will remain, free of charge. All this means that our financial position has grown increasingly difficult.”

St Luke’s total budget for 2009/10 was 7.5m, with 2.3m coming from the primary care trust and the remainder from donations. But Mr Hartland said people were not giving as much.

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At the end of the last financial year reserves at the hospice were 3.7m – enough to keep it operating for just six months. Over the past two years 800,000 of reserve cash has been spent keeping the hospice open.

Help the Hospices, a charity representing hospices nationwide, is warning more chief executives in Yorkshire could find themselves in a similar position in the next few months.

Director of policy Jonathan Ellis said: “A Help the Hospices survey undertaken in March found that 64 per cent of primary care trusts had frozen funding for hospices in 2010/11. A further six per cent had actually cut funding by between 1.7 and 10 per cent.

“With the increasing pressure on public spending, we are concerned that the level of NHS funding will continue to be eroded, despite government commitment to protect front-line services.”

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In Leeds, St Gemma’s Hospice chief executive Bill Kilgallon said that, although finances were balanced, it was a fine line when negotiating NHS funding.

St Gemma’s total budget is 7m a year, with 2.2m coming from the NHS. But its three-year agreement is drawing to an end and Mr Kilgallon said he was “on the lookout” for any change.

He added: “Hospices would really welcome stability and the ability to plan ahead. The demand for services has increased this year and we have been able to do some expansion.

“What I would like to see from the Government review is more equity in funding for hospices. Some kind of across-the-board formula to allow us to plan for the future.”

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Children’s hospices such as Martin House in Wetherby and Bluebell Wood, near Sheffield, are in an even more precarious state.

Bluebell Wood chief executive Sarah Champion said: “Unlike adult hospices, children’s hospices receive no statutory government funding. Bluebell Wood has to rely on public support to raise the majority of our annual 2.5m running costs.

“We are constantly amazed by the generosity of the public who continue to give even during these tough times. Without them, Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice wouldn’t be able to provide the service it does.”

Comment: Page 12.