Hospices across the UK are having to make difficult decisions. Hospiscare is one of them.
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In 2023/24 Hospiscare was a facing a deficit budget of over £3.4m, following a loss in 2022/23 of £1.5m. This was not sustainable, so they had to make redundancies across non-clinical and clinical services. From a clinical provision, this meant closing the Hospice at Home services and reducing bed numbers from 12 to 8, as well as moving one of the community teams from its base and relocating to co-share with one of retail outlets to save money.
Aside from the devastation to the staff affected and the direct impact on patients, this clearly raised concerns with supporters as well, who had tirelessly raised money for the Hospice over many years. It was an incredibly difficult time for all, staff volunteers, supporters but most of all patients and their families.
Aside from making the cuts, they also campaigned strongly with the local ICB during this time, as they were funded considerably less than the other hospices in the county. Eventually, the ICB acknowledged the inequity and did increase funding to parity with the other Hospices, bringing in much needed funds.
All of these measures have provided some short-term security for Hospiscare, however, cost pressures continue to rise and our budget for 2026/27 is a deficit of £1.3m, which already includes a healthy legacy pipeline which is not guaranteed in future years. So, the long-term reality is an ongoing deficit budget which will eventually erode reserves and will materially impact on their ability to support those most in need, at a time of an ageing population and growing complexity.
