North Wales MS and Chair of the Cross Party Group on Hospices and Palliative Care, Mark Isherwood, has called on the Welsh Government to significantly increase financial support for palliative care and bereavement support services in the next financial year to meet the increased and more complex needs arising from the pandemic.
Leading today’s Welsh Conservative debate in the Welsh Parliament on ‘support for palliative care during the pandemic’, Mr Isherwood, who also Chairs the Cross Party Group on Funerals and Bereavement, stressed that “hospices and NHS palliative care services have provided continuity of care to people with terminal and life-limiting conditions throughout the pandemic…as have hospice and bereavement counselling teams, many of which are also offering specialist mental health and bereavement care to local health and care staff through the pandemic,” and that “In some cases, frontline hospice staff have been amongst the only health and care professionals in contact with people as they approach the end of their lives.”
He said it is therefore concerning that the £6.3 million allocated by the Welsh Government to the Hospice Emergency Fund is less generous than equivalent funds in all other UK nations and falls significantly short of the total allocated to the Welsh Government in consequential funding from the UK Government’s support for hospices in England.
He said:
“Whether dying of Covid-19 or other terminal and life-shortening conditions, people require expert palliative and end of life care. The acute rise in deaths related to the pandemic has increased the need for hospice and palliative care, on top of an already increasing need, with annual deaths under normal circumstances already projected to increase by 25 per cent over the next 20 years.
“While many people want to die in their own homes, for some the hospice is their preferred place of care and for many it may not be possible or practical to be supported to die in their own home, highlighting the importance of hospice inpatient units. Throughout the pandemic Hospices have been proactive in ensuring their communities have access to their inpatient services providing specialist end of life care or crisis care, should they need them. Nightingale House Hospice in Wrexham changed its referral process so that people or their families could self-refer into their care, as well as maintaining traditional routes of professional referral. Instead of closing, the hospice effectively ‘opened up’ access to its care.”
He added:
“There has been no confirmed additional support for hospices in Wales to maintain their essential services during 2020-21 - and they are facing a combined shortfall of £4.2m by March. However, hospice and community palliative care services are still providing vital face-to-face care to people, more people are being cared for at the end of life in their own homes, and this when extended families and friends aren’t able to be with them, putting immediate families under huge pressure.
“In contrast, NHS England added up to £125m for the five months from November 2020 to March 2021 to their original emergency funding package – equating to up to £6m extra in consequential funding to the Welsh Government.
“Again, the Welsh Government has not indicated that palliative care services in Wales will benefit from this. Further, there was no indication in the Welsh Government’s Draft Budget for 2021/22 of continued support for hospices to maintain their essential services, despite their estimated combined shortfall of £6.1m during 2021/22.
“Before the pandemic, the Welsh Government agreed to review charitable hospice funding, recognising that the current arrangement neither accurately reflects population need for palliative care now, nor the projected increase into the future. As yet, this review has not been forthcoming.
“As the Pandemic has demonstrated, every person should have access to expert and dignified end of life care, no matter where they die.”