Two weeks ago, Nigel Hartley the CEO of Mountbatten, warned that if something doesn’t change in relation to government funding for hospices, “we will be saying goodbye to our beloved hospice movement”.
He explained that Mountbatten’s NHS funding will be down by £800,000 in April due to no uplift for inflation. He added that uplifts over the last years have never matched the cost of staff pay awards or cost of living.
He said,
“If something doesn’t change soon, we will be saying goodbye to our beloved hospice movement and the growing number of people who so desperately need our care will be left and ignored as they were at the birth of the NHS in the 1940s.
“So much of what we do is supported by our local communities. I think there are strengths in that and we need to retain healthy and reciprocal relationships with our biggest advocates, but it only works with consistent, competent and planned funding from our NHS partners.”
Call from MPs
This week, Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Bob Seely, announced that he’d joined forces with Paul Holmes, Conservative MP for Eastleigh.
They called for a funding uplift from the ICB in line with inflation for both of Mountbatten’s hospices – the one on the Island and the one in Hampshire.
Cattell: We are facing some complex financial challenges across the health and care system
News OnTheWight approached the ICB to ask why an uplift in line with inflation had not been applied to Mountbatten’s funding and how they responded to the two MPs’ demands.
They didn’t answer the question, instead Darren Cattell, Place Director for the Isle of Wight at NHS Hampshire and Isle of Wight told News OnTheWight,
“There are a number of hospices across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight who currently receive some funding from the NHS Integrated Care Board along as from other sources. We are working closely with them and discussing the way their services are funded going forward.
“We have a commitment to fund end of life care which we do so in a number of different ways, from supporting local hospices to providing end of life care support and palliative care for more complex cases in a person’s own home.
“Services provided by Mountbatten Hospices are incredibly well respected and appreciated by our communities and we want to maintain that for Hampshire and the Isle of Wight residents.
“We are facing some complex financial challenges across the health and care system and we are working hard with our partners to address these.”
