Renfrewshire charity ACCORD Hospice is one of 14 Scottish hospice charities that say they are in the grip of an “insurmountable funding gap”.
These critical hospice services across Scotland have reached a funding crisis point due to historical underfunding.
There is a growing, unacceptable funding black hole in Scotland’s hospices with budget shortfalls reaching the point where hospices will have no option but to consider service cuts.
The hospice sector in Scotland provides expert palliative, end-of-life care and bereavement support to 21,000 adults and children each year in Scotland. It does so with a committed and valued workforce.
This year alone, NHS staff have been awarded a 5.5% increase with consultant pay also increasing by 10.5%. With no additional funding to support, hospices have to raise funds themselves to match this pay for staff or face losing highly-skilled clinical staff.
As independent charities, hospices provide their care free of charge with approximately a third of their costs funded from the NHS.
There is now a risk that, for the first time ever, hospices will have to turn people away. The crisis resulting from years of underfunding means services will close. Cutting services is the last thing any hospice would want to do but, without an immediate commitment from the Scottish Government to funding support now and into the future, services will be impacted and the people of Scotland will lose the access they need at a vital time.
Hospices from across Scotland have come together as part of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group to demand urgent action by the Scottish Government to ensure the future of vital hospice care.
Jacki Smart, CEO at ACCORD and Chair of the group, said: “For many years, hospices have been warning the Scottish Government that statutory funding for palliative and end-of-life care was not sufficient.
“We care for people who would otherwise be cared for in hospital. We help reduce the pressure on an already overstretched NHS. Our highly-trained and specialised staff provide this care in hospices, hospitals and in the community.
“But with static, or in some cases, decreasing annual funding from statutory funders in the NHS and Scottish Government, we simply cannot keep providing these services.
“The breaking point for hospices has been the expectation that on top of increasing costs and reduced funding, we must fund an increase in employers’ National Insurance. We simply cannot continue to ask for this amount of money from our loyal supporters.
“We are calling on the Scottish Government to urgently prioritise funding for hospices, to support pay parity for hospice staff and to commit to a sustainable funding model into the future.
“We are asking for support this year to address backlog deficits and pay award pressure and to make provision in the Scottish Government budget for next and subsequent years to ensure pay parity and recognition for hospice staff is a priority and that funding levels are sustained.
“Our staff deserve to be valued and rewarded similarly to their NHS colleagues. Our patients and the people of Scotland deserve to know that our care is there for them when they need it most.”
The number of people needing palliative care in Scotland is predicted to increase by more than 17% in the next 25 years and the care they need will be more complex, adding to the pressure on an already overstretched NHS. The cost to health and social care services of caring for people in the last year of life is huge, with unscheduled care alone already costing the NHS in Scotland almost £190 million per year.
With hospices in England facing similar challenges, some have started making redundancies and closing services.
Jacki added: “We are not yet at the point of closing services, but if urgent action is not taken by the Scottish Government, vital end of life care in Scotland will be seriously affected.”
Headline photo credit: ACCORD Hospice