THE funding of hospices shows that “voluntary sector beginnings” are “still very much in evidence”, Lord Farmer said on Thursday as he introduced his debate on how the state funds palliative care.
“A review of funding would discover a highly variable model for hospices: some are run by the NHS, with large annual charitable grants, and others are run by a charity that gets some funding from the NHS. A typical hallmark is a holistic, bespoke, and patient-centred approach that values their relationships,” he said.
“We shouldn’t forget that every one receiving hospice care are on the sting of eternity, and dying peacefully also requires spiritual palliative care.”
He spoke of how “many hospices and the essential support they supply to dying people, their families, and the broader health system, are already in funding-famine” as he advocated “a national plan” and a “review of the state’s own role and responsibilities”.
The Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, said that she suspected that “there has never been a more vital moment in time to debate the funding. . . According to Hospice UK, the sector is facing the worst financial crisis in greater than 20 years.” She explained that she was patron of Hospiscare, in Exeter.
Inequality was a difficulty, she said, as “the state provides on average only a 3rd of hospice funding. A big proportion is found by fund-raising.”
With reference to the brand new attempts “to vary the law for many who are terminally ailing” (News, 25 October), she asked: “How can we consider this if we don’t give enough funding to hospices, palliative care, and palliative care research, so that individuals dying receive the very best care — the care that they should make life price living, and, within the words of Dame Cicely Saunders, to live life until they die?
“I hope that we aren’t prioritising the care of those that need it based on their contribution to our economy. This is contrary to how God values each one in every of us, contrary to the principles on which the NHS is founded, and contrary to human dignity. How the Government decide to prioritise palliative care matters very much.”
The former Archbishop of York, Lord Sentamu, spoke of his experience of the “amazing work and care offered to many individuals at the top of their lives”. He suggested that the Government might “apply to the funding of hospices the lesson of the R. A. Butler 1944 Education Act”, which made secondary education free and universal as much as the age of 15.
“Before this was enacted, the voluntary schools provided by churches were largely funded from the income of historic trusts, or from the giving of the parishioners. In voluntary-aided schools, the church is answerable for only ten per cent of the associated fee of the maintenance of the constructing; the remaining is provided for by the state,” he said.
“A mixed funding model could work well, provided that the federal government stays the last person standing by way of funding. Hospices could grow to be voluntary-aided hospices.”
Lord Griffiths of Burry Port, a former President of the Methodist Conference, also referred to the upcoming debate on assisted dying. “Is it not ironic that we cannot see the 2 together? We must stiffen our resolve, influence all we will, and get up for investing in hospices as a responsible way of coping with people at the top of their lives. We must then let the opposite debate occur, with that already a commitment on our part.”
In summing up for the Government, Baroness Merron commented that “regardless of whether the law changes on this matter, we’ll and must proceed to work towards providing high-quality, compassionate palliative and end-of-life look after every one who needs it.”
