Hospices at breaking point as financial pressures grow

• Barbara-Anne Walker, Chief Executive at Ashgate Hospice, says it's a huge challenge

Millions of pounds worth of extra funding is needed to help hospices across the country.

One hospice in Derbyshire says a quarter of its beds have been closed for the past three years due to increased costs - despite patients being in desperate need.

Ashgate Hospice provided specialist palliative and end of life care for almost two and a half thousand people over the past year.

To provide those services again this year the hospice needs just over sixteen million pounds - a rise of 7% on the previous year.

And staff say that the financial gap is only getting bigger, with things such as the food for patients, utility costs and staff wages all on the rise.

The hospice receives around five million pounds of funding each year from the NHS, but all of the additional and increased demands have to be met through its own fundraising.

In total, around 11.2 million pounds, almost 70% of the hospice's overall funding, needs to be raised each year.

Barbara-Anne Walker, Chief Executive at Ashgate Hospice, says it's a huge challenge.

"We're struggling to be innovative", she says. "We work incredibly well, our staff and volunteers are so creative but trying to do that in a context where we know we don't have enough money is becoming increasingly difficult."

"There's a 77 million pound deficit across hospices in the UK this year alone. That isn't sustainable. It starts to impact on our ability to provide care and it impacts on our ability to provide and respond to the complex needs that our patients have."

"At the moment and for the last three years we've only had 15 beds open out of 21. And that's because we have no money, we have no funding, to be able to open those other beds. We know we could fill them, we know patients need them but we have no money to be able to open them.

"It's immensely frustrating, it's heartbreaking, we're turning patients away who need our care and who won't get the care they need from anywhere else", she adds.

Kimberley Greaves was widowed with two young children at the age of 44, after her husband Andrew died after developing bladder cancer when he was 41.

Andrew first accessed support and counselling from Ashgate Hospice when he was initially struggling with his diagnosis.

He was then referred as a patient when his treatment could not continue and he was too poorly to stay at home.

She says the services the hospice offered her and her family were invaluable.

"As soon as Andrew came into the hospice you could just sense that relief that actually there are other people involved now that can help with the care. He just seemed to relax for the first time in a very, very long time", explains Kimberley.

"The hospice helped him and our family during a very difficult time and continued to help afterwards. We had people come to the house to support us and I'll never forget all of the support he had here while he was here at the hospice."

"I'm just forever grateful", she adds.

Hospice UK says more funding is needed from the next government, via the NHS, to support hospices and continue the work that they do.

Deputy Director of External Affairs Charlie Kings says it's important to note that the services provided by hospices in turn reduce pressure on the NHS.

"This needs to be on the agenda, hospices have to have a seat at the table to be listened to", he said.

"We understand of course that times are tight and there's not a lot of money around for public services but the irony is that hospices actually save the state a lot of money because if hospices cut their services those patients and families just have to go back to NHS services".

The topic has been a topic that was recently debated in parliament, with an all party group looking into the issue.

It is calling on the government to come up with a National Plan to ensure a proper funding stream, a national minimum standard for the provision of hospice care and for Integrated Care Boards to provide a named senior contact for voluntary sector partners.

Meanwhile hospices across the country say they're hoping that whoever is next in number 10 will offer some sort of solution to the financial pressures they face.

Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know...