The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Hospice and End of Life Care recently published their report following an inquiry into the state of government funding for hospices.

The inquiry found that despite the introduction of a legal requirement for Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) to commission palliative and end of life care, ICB commissioning of hospice services is currently not fit for purpose. As a result, the services hospices provide for dying people and their families and the value they provide to the health system is at risk.

As Chair of the Greater Manchester Hospices Collaborative, Bolton Hospice CEO Dr Leigh Vallance was recently interviewed by BBC reporter Annabel Tiffin on the state of hospice funding. You can read more about the BBC's report here.

Dr (h.c) Leigh Vallance, Chief Executive Officer at Bolton Hospice, said, “The stark findings from the APPG report confirm what we already knew: NHS/ICB commissioning of hospice services is not fit for purpose, and if left unresolved will leave vital hospice services for dying people and their families at risk.

With no confirmation currently that further government funding for 2024-25 will be forthcoming, we find ourselves facing an uncertain future, unable to plan effectively with an unsustainable financial deficit. 

Without a fairer funding deal, we will have no choice but to consider reducing our vital services for local people. This is a measure we were hoping to avoid, but sadly, is one that hospices up and down the country are getting ready to face if a deal is not secured in good time. 

I appreciate the challenges faced by the NHS/ICB who themselves are still waiting to hear from the Department of Health/NHSE, what their funding and targets are for 2024-25, which will undoubtably be challenging, but our services represent unrivalled value for money, where we contribute more than two-thirds of the cost of our highly specialist, consultant-led, palliative and end of life care via our charitable donations and would leave the NHS picking up 100% of the cost of diverted patient care if we were forced to reduce our hospice care services.”

CEO of Bolton Hospice, Leigh Vallance, spoke to Annabel Tiffin on BBC North West about the hospice funding crisis 

How is this affecting Bolton Hospice? 

Last year we announced that due to a combination of the cost-of-living crisis, high fuel and energy costs, high inflation and over 15 years of below inflation increases to our government NHS funding, our projected financial deficit for 2023-24 was £1.2million, and that without further government funding for 2024-25 and beyond, we would need to consider closing or reducing our services.

Thanks to the incredible support of The Bolton News with their ‘Save Bolton Hospice’ campaign and the efforts of our generous local community, an extra £450,000 has been raised, reducing the deficit to £750,000 and helping to sustain our existing services for longer.

However, our underlying unsustainable financial deficit remains which is why we continue to focus our efforts on exploring all possible avenues of further income generation and crucially, securing a fairer government NHS funding deal.

Sadly, we are yet to receive any confirmation of our government funding for 2024-25 which leaves us unable to effectively plan for the coming year and means our vital services for local people remain at risk.

How can you help?

If you'd like us to send you updates about the funding crisis please sign up to our email newsletter. If you'd like to support Bolton Hospice, then please consider a monthly donation, volunteer at one of our charity shops, sign up to our hospice lottery or pledge to leave a gift in your will so that we can continue to support local people living with life-limiting now, and in future.