Hospice Leaders urge MP's to support funding reform on Parliament visit

Willow Wood Hospice representatives have visited Parliament this week to urge MPs to support reforming the funding model for hospices. 

CEO Tracy Minshull and Clinical Director Nicola Cheetham attended the event on Tuesday, March 18, as hospice leaders from across Greater Manchester asked MPs to sign a joint letter to the Minister of State for Health and Social Care.

The letter called for the Government’s new 10-year health plan to include improvements to palliative and end-of-life care, and a reformation of the current hospice funding model.

Currently £11.7bn is spent on health care for people in the last year of their life in the UK, with 80 per cent spent in hospitals and just four per cent on hospice care. Hospices in Greater Manchester care for around 10,000 patients every year.

Since 2020, hospice costs in Greater Manchester have risen by 33 per cent, with two-thirds of costs paid for by fundraising within the local community.

The Government announced just before Christmas that hospices in England will receive £100m over the next two years, which has been welcomed by Greater Manchester’s hospices.

However, it can only be spent on improvements such as to buildings, IT systems and outdoor spaces and does not cover day-to-day running costs.

Tracy Minshull, Willow Wood Hospice CEO, commented: “Willow Wood Hospice has a vital role in providing compassionate, specialist care for any adult in our local community with a life-limiting illness.

“The current funding model is simply unsustainable. With rising costs and increasing demand, we urgently need a fairer, long-term solution to ensure hospices like ours can continue to support those who need us most.

“Meeting with some of our Greater Manchester MPs in Parliament was an important opportunity to highlight these challenges and call for meaningful change. We hope the Government will listen and take action to secure the future of hospice care.”

The Greater Manchester Hospices Provider Collaborative is a long-standing strategic partnership between the seven adult and two children’s hospices across the region’s 10 boroughs, who work closely together to improve the quality, access and sustainability of services.

The parliamentary event was sponsored by Makerfield MP Josh Simons.