In a letter published in The Herald, the heads of all 14 independent Scottish hospice charities say they are in the grip of an "insurmountable funding gap".  These critical hospice services across Scotland have reached a funding crisis point due to historical underfunding.

There is a growing, unacceptable funding black hole of £25 million in Scotland’s hospices with budget shortfalls reaching the point where hospices will have no option but to consider service cuts.

The hospice sector in Scotland provides expert palliative, end of life care, and bereavement support to 21,000 adults and children each year in Scotland. It does so with a committed and valued workforce.

Tracy Flynn, CEO of the Ayrshire Hospice and part of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group commented: “Although we are ready and excited to open our beautiful new, refurbished and contemporary Ayrshire Hospice facility in early 2025, our charity, and our colleagues in Hospices across Scotland feel the enormous pressure to keep pace with NHS salary rises and we do not have the funds we require to innovate the way we would like to. The National Insurance hike alone will add approximately £183,000 a year to the Ayrshire Hospice’s salary bill. 

“The Ayrshire Hospice is not currently turning any patients or families away or cutting any clinical services. Last week, we shared the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group’s call to action around the funding gap with our staff, and we are actively recruiting for new employed and voluntary roles at the Hospice.”

This year alone, NHS staff have been awarded a 5.5% increase with consultant pay also increasing by 10.5%. With no additional funding to support, hospices have to raise funds themselves to match this pay for staff or face losing highly skilled clinical staff.

As independent charities, hospices provide their care free of charge with approximately a third of their costs funded from the NHS. We believe this specialist care should remain free to people who need it.

Tracy continued: “Nothing will negatively impact the quality of the specialist care we deliver, what could be negatively impacted is our innovation and ambition.

“Scotland's hospice sector urgently needs a funding solution - help for today to build a sustainable framework for tomorrow. Without a viable funding solution, palliative and end-of-life care across Scotland will face severe challenges.

“We are extremely fortunate and grateful that the community of Ayrshire and Arran are so supportive of our charity and it is our belief that Hospice care should always be free, and it is our privilege to deliver palliative and end-of-life care. We are closely supported by our partners in NHS Ayrshire & Arran and health and social care partnerships and are committed to excellence in all we do.”

There is now a risk that, for the first time ever, hospices will have to turn people away. The crisis resulting from underfunding over years means services will close. Cutting services is the last thing any hospice would want to do and they will do everything they can to avoid that but without an immediate commitment from the Scottish Government to funding support now and into the future, services will be impacted and the people of Scotland will lose the access they need at a vital time.

Hospices from across Scotland have come together as part of the Scottish Hospice Leadership Group to demand urgent action by the Scottish Government to ensure the future of vital hospice care.

Chair of the Group and CEO of ACCORD Hospice in Paisley, Jacki Smart, said: “For many years, hospices have been warning Scottish Government that statutory funding for palliative and end of life care was not sufficient.

“We care for people who would otherwise be cared for in hospital. We help reduce the pressure on an already overstretched NHS. Our highly trained and specialised staff provide this care in hospices, hospitals and in the community.

“But with static, or in some cases, decreasing annual funding from statutory funders in the NHS and the Scottish Government, we simply cannot keep providing these services.

“The breaking point for hospices has been the expectation that on top of increasing costs and reduced funding, we must fund an increase in employers’ National Insurance. We simply cannot continue to ask for this amount of money from our loyal supporters.

“We are calling on the Scottish Government to urgently prioritise funding for hospices, to support pay parity for hospice staff and to commit to a sustainable funding model into the future.”

 “Our staff deserve to be valued and rewarded similarly to their NHS colleagues. Our patients and the people of Scotland deserve to know that our care is there for them when they need it.”

Jacki added: “We are not at the point of closing services yet, but if urgent action is not taken by The Scottish Government, vital end of life care in Scotland will be seriously affected.”

You can give your support to Scottish Hospices by writing to your local MSP to call for action to safeguard the future of palliative and end of life care in Scotland with the easy tool on the Hospice UK website below

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