Hospice UK welcomes the Government’s recognition of the urgent need to improve palliative and end of life care, including its commitment to moving towards sustainable contracting of hospice services.
However, with hospices under increasing pressure due to rising demand and an unsustainable funding model, the detail and delivery of this announcement will be critical to ensuring it meets the needs of hospices, patients and families.
What is the Modern Service Framework and why is it needed?
The MSF sets out a vision for improving palliative and end of life care, helping to ensure people receive high-quality, consistent care when they need it.
For too long, access to palliative and end of life care has not been equitable, with people’s experiences often depending on where they live, who they are and why they are ill.
Hospices are a vital part of this care system, supporting thousands of people every year alongside NHS services. But rising demand, increasing costs and a broken funding model mean many hospices are facing difficult decisions about the services they can provide.
Nearly 6 in 10 hospices have already made, or are considering making, cuts to frontline services.
Without urgent action, more patients and families risk missing out on the specialist care they need at the end of life.
Hospice UK's response:
Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK said: “Rising demand and a broken funding model means hospices and their vital services are under pressure like never before. We've been ringing the alarm on this for some time, and so today we welcome the Government’s recognition of this via the interim update on the Modern Service Framework for palliative and end of life care, especially their commitment to moving to the sustainable contracting of hospice services.
“With nearly 6 in 10 hospices having already made or considering cuts to frontline services, hospices and the people they support cannot wait. The detail and delivery of this announcement must meet hospice needs, in line with our four-point plan for hospice funding.
“Already nearly 1 in 3 do not get the end of life care they need, and it is patients and families who pay the price for diminishing hospice services. We only have one chance to get it right at the end of someone’s life, hospices must be supported to provide their essential care to everyone who needs it.
"Today’s update is a critical first step towards making palliative and end of life care fit for the future, but proper accountability and sustainable funding will be critical to making this a reality.”
Hospice UK’s four-point plan for fair hospice funding
Hospice UK has set out a four-point plan to create a fair and sustainable funding model for hospices:
Full funding of specialist palliative care provided by hospices
Proper NHS contracts for hospices
Funding to cover the cost of NHS pay rises for hospice staff
National accountability for equitable provision of palliative care, wherever you live
These changes would stem the wave of cutbacks to hospice services we have seen in the past two years.
They would open up significantly more community palliative care capacity to underpin the government’s vision for neighbourhood based care – allowing hospices to better meet the growing needs of our ageing population.
Our key ask
We’re calling on the Government to take urgent action through Hospice UK’s four-point plan. Today's commitment to sustainable contracting of hospice services is a significant step towards point 2 of our plan.
As a first step towards fair hospice funding, we are calling on the Government to commit £112.5 million in additional recurring revenue funding from this financial year.
This would be an important first step towards fully funding the specialist palliative care provided by hospices, which we estimate would require an additional £450 million in total.
Hospices must be supported to continue delivering the compassionate, expert care that patients and families rely on every day.
