Cash pressures force hospice to shut some services

Isabel Hospice's Living Well community hub is one of the services closing next year

A hospice is to close three of its support services, citing "unprecedented" challenges in raising funds this year.

Isabel Hospice in Hertfordshire said it needed to save money to make sure its specialist palliative and end-of-life care could continue operating.

The charity, based in Welwyn Garden City, needs to raise £8m a year to continue running its services, which are free of charge to those who need them.

The affected departments are called Living Well, Compassionate Communities and Children's Services.

According to the hospice, Living Well offers therapeutic support, wellbeing programmes and practical care, to help people maintain independence and manage the challenges of life-limiting conditions.

Compassionate Communities helps people who are elderly, frail, isolated or grieving.

Children's Services include pre and post-bereavement counselling, and 115 children were supported in 2024-25.

The hospice plans to keep the three services running until 31 March, and it stressed that core services - including its inpatient unit - had not been affected.

Helen Glenister, chief executive of the charity, said: "These services have been an essential lifeline for many people in our community, and we know this news will be upsetting for the people we support.

"We have done everything possible to avoid this outcome, but the financial reality we face left us with no other option.

"What remains clear, however, is our absolute commitment to providing the highest quality care we can for patients and families across eastern Hertfordshire."

The NHS contributes 30% to the core services at Isabel Hospice, meaning that the remaining 70% has to be covered by fundraising.

This news comes in the same week that another Hertfordshire-based hospice announced it was consulting its staff and service users to make crucial savings of £1.1m.

Garden House Hospice, in Letchworth Garden City, said it might have to make at least 20 staff redundant in efforts to close the funding gap.