Hospice help is welcome; now sort PPE scandal – The Yorkshire Post says

THE Yorkshire Post is, for one, grateful to Chancellor Rishi Sunak responding to the cash crisis confronting countless charities by unveiling a £750m support package just 36 hours after Sue Ryder warned that its network of hospices might be forced to shut.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak.Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak.
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Urgent action needed over PPE crisis in social care – The Yorkshire Post says

Even though Mr Sunak warned that he cannot compensate every charity for every last penny that they will be denied as a result of the Covid-19 shutdown, his announcement does – at the very least – go some way to supporting those organisations, like hospices and domestic violence charities, whose work remains so important.

But this does not ameliorate growing concerns about the supply of PPE protection equipment to care homes – despite 10 Downing Street stressing that 7.8 million items have already been made available to this sector. Now MPs are revealing how Wheatfields Hospice in Leeds, part of the Sue Ryder charity, is having to spend precious time chasing up PPE suppliers so that the Covid-19 risks to their staff – and, in turn, the terminally ill – are kept to a minimum.

Leeds Rhinos rugby league legend Jamie Peacock has previously raised money for Wheatfields Hospice.Leeds Rhinos rugby league legend Jamie Peacock has previously raised money for Wheatfields Hospice.
Leeds Rhinos rugby league legend Jamie Peacock has previously raised money for Wheatfields Hospice.
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This comes hours after council leaders and others told this newspaper that the spread of Covid-19 in care homes – there have, tragically, been reports of multiple deaths at such accommodation in other parts of the UK – will place this region’s hospitals under even greater pressure.

But where’s the joined-up planning between the Department of Health, Leeds-based NHS England, town halls and social care providers? The National Health Service is, ostensibly, a national care service – a point politicians and policy-makers ignore at their peril.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

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Sincerely. Thank you.

James Mitchinson

Editor