Specialist community hospice visits fall by 150,000 in a year

Specialist hospice staff are visiting significantly fewer patients in their home due to according to new data from Hospice UK, as part of a worrying trend where insufficient funding is holding hospices back from reaching everyone who needs them. 

Data from Hospice UK's Activity Survey showed that in 2024–25, specialist palliative care doctors and nurses across the UK made 590,000 home visits - down over 20% from 740,000 the previous year. 

Toby Porter, CEO of Hospice UK, said:  

“Hospice care isn’t just delivered within a hospice building. The decline in specialist community visits is worrying because these services are lifelines for people facing the end of their life of living with life-limiting illnesses. We know hospices up and down the country have waiting lists, so if they’re making fewer visits, it’s not due to lack of demand, it’s a result of rising costs and insufficient funding stretching hospices to the brink.” 

Across the UK, 82% of hospice care takes place outside the inpatient unit. Hospices make 1.4 million specialist and generalist community visits each year, helping people at the end of their lives live well in the place they love most: their own home. They deliver expert care closer to home, managing complex symptoms, providing specialist pain relief, supporting families through emotional and practical challenges, and preventing unnecessary hospital admissions. But as hospices face mounting cost pressures, many are having to cut services, and scale back the essential care they deliver in their communities. 

Porter continues: “At least 20 hospices have already been forced to cut services and make valued staff redundant, and we know 2 in 5 hospices are planning to make cuts this year. Hospice services are shrinking right when they should be expanding to meet rising demand. This isn’t right. We want to see full funding of specialist care provided by hospices, so they can reach everyone who needs them.”  

Hospice UK is calling for a reform to hospice funding so hospices can deliver on the vision in the Ten Year Health Plan for England, and in order for them to expand, not reduce their services. Hospices provide care to 310,000 people across the UK every year, and their services are needed more than ever, with demand expected to increase by 25% by 2048. Currently the way they are funded is inconsistent, not based on local need, and not keeping up with rising costs.  

To tackle this, Hospice UK has specific asks to shore up hospice care in England. They want to see full funding for specialist palliative care provided by hospices, proper NHS contracts for hospices, funding to cover the cost of NHS pay rises for hospice staff, and national accountability for equitable provision of palliative care, wherever you live.   

Porter adds: “Fewer specialist community visits means more people who can’t get the end of life care they vitally need. With assisted dying legislation on the table in England, Wales and Scotland, it’s more important than ever that palliative care is properly funded so it can be available to everyone who needs it. This could not be more urgent.”  

The issue was covered on BBC’s Newsnight, who visited St Raphael’s Hospice in Sutton to hear about the incredible care they provide both in the hospice building and to people in their own homes. Yet this valued care is under threat, with St Raphael’s being one of many hospices forced to make cuts last year.  

Nick Stevens, Joint CEO and Director of Finance, spoke on the programme about the financial pressures on the Hospice at a time when demand for our services has seen a 20 per cent increase. 

Stevens said, “Hospice care is vital across the UK, but it must not be taken for granted. Without increased Government funding, hospices will be forced to make further cuts to services, even as demand continues to rise. It’s time to protect hospices for the future so that dignified, specialist care can continue for generations to come.”