Southern Hospice Group statement in response to BBC news report

Southern Hospice Group attended the meeting referred to in the BBC article ‘Hospitals warned of end-of-life care crisis threatening treatment’. We are committed to working alongside our GP, community health, hospital and social care partners to improve access and effectiveness of palliative and end of life care in our locality. 

We recognise the increasing pressures on hospitals, which are worse over winter, that force clinical staff into making difficult decisions about how and where patients with palliative & EOLC needs are cared for. There are often missed opportunities to prevent admission of those patients to hospital who are approaching the end of their life, that can only be improved through a whole system approach.   

This situation has not happened over night; Southern Hospice Group has consistently reported the rapidly growing demand for palliative end-of-life care services in Sussex. Nationally, the hospice sector has been calling for increased government funding for many years, not only to provide the level of care our communities need, but also prevent the pressures now being seen in our hospitals. 

Our two adult hospices – Martlets and St Barnabas House have given support to more than 3,900 people and their families in the past year alone, with our community teams playing a vital role in delivering clinical care directly to patients in their own homes – carrying out more than 16,000 visits, supporting 2,400 individuals. Our children’s hospice – Chestnut Tree House has cared for over 300 children and young people, plus extra support for their families when they need it.  

We are doing everything we can to operate sustainably, yet we currently have eight adult inpatient beds closed, simply because we cannot afford to staff and run them. The rise in national insurance contributions alone has added an extra £500,000 to our costs, alongside other operational costs having inflationary rises of 22% since 2020. Without sufficient funding, it will become increasingly challenging for us to provide the level of care our communities need, which will inevitably put even more pressure on local hospitals. 

It costs more than £21 million each year for our two adult hospices to deliver specialist care services. This figure has continued to rise alongside increasing operational costs, far outstripping the level of government funding we receive, which is only 22% – one fifth of our funding. As a result, the Group is now facing a deficit of nearly £4 million. 

With a long-term government funding agreement, we could better design our services around the needs of our community, keep pace with rising demand, and help relieve the mounting pressure on local hospitals. We will work with community, hospitals, primary care and social care colleagues to help ensure that people receive generalist and specialist care when and where they need it and increase choice around where they want to be cared for and die. 

Southern Hospice Group is keen to be part of the solution but without a sustainable funding solution for the hospice sector, at a time when demand has never been higher, we are having to consider doing less. Inevitably this will have a wider impact on the health and care system, at a time when it’s already struggling, leading to patients having less choice and access to the appropriate treatment.