Hospices face redundancies and cuts, bosses warn

Hospices in North Yorkshire provide a range of end-of-life and palliative services

North Yorkshire hospices face making redundancies and cutting services due to a deepening financial crisis, bosses have warned.

Scarborough's St Catherine's Hospice, York-based St Leonard's Hospice and Harrogate's Saint Michael's Hospice would each need to present deficit budgets amounting in total to £1.5m, North Yorkshire Council's scrutiny of health committee has been told.

That was not "sustainable or possible", Tony Collins, chief executive of Saint Michael's, said in a report examined by councillors.

A spokesperson for NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said: "We are working with partners to achieve a system transformation within the current resource envelope."

'Unprecedented demand'

In the report presented to councillors at a meeting on Friday, Mr Collins said that four to five years ago, the NHS had funded between 35-40% of the hospice's costs, with fundraising making up the rest of its income.

Today, 28% of the hospice's costs came from the NHS, with Mr Collins warning that could fall to 25% unless more funding was provided.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the meeting was told that although the government pledged to invest £25.5bn into the NHS in the autumn budget, no extra money was provided for hospice care.

At the same time, North Yorkshire and York hospices would need to find an extra £140,000 due to the increase in the national minimum wage and a further £650,000 for the increase in employer National Insurance contributions, councillors heard.

Mr Collins said: "All of this is set within the context of unprecedented demand through increasing deaths, an ageing population and greater levels of dependency from the NHS on our capacity to support their own."

He added that non-salary costs were "already at baseline".

Mr Collins said that a service reduction and even some closure is "highly likely"

Hospices provide a range of end-of-life and palliative services, including specialist inpatient beds, community-based end-of-life care, outpatient clinics, lymphoedema services and bereavement counselling and support.

A national appeal for funding for hospices had resulted in the government announcing an extra £100m for the sector, although this money would be reserved for capital projects, councillors were told.

The North Yorkshire Council meeting heard that despite the funding crisis, there had been "minimal dialogue" between the hospices and the NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB, which distributes NHS funding.

Mr Collins said the situation was not helped by changing staffing and structures at the ICB, resulting in inconsistent commissioning decisions with wide variations across the hospices.

A service reduction at St Michael's was "highly likely", Mr Collins said, and "even some closure".

'Funding boost'

A spokesperson for St Leonard's Hospice, which also contributed to the report to councillors, told the BBC: "We want to reassure our community we have no plans to make cuts to our services or redundancies.

"We remain financially secure and have good levels of reserve to support our ongoing work in the short term.

"However, these reserves will not last if we continue to see such poor levels of statutory funding in the coming years," they added.

St Catherine's hospice, another contributor to the report seen by councillors, has been approached by the BBC for a comment.

Responding, a spokesperson for NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB said: "In December 2024, the government announced that hospices would receive a £100m funding boost over two years.

"The funding boost is a starting point towards improved financial sustainability, but the ICB recognises the need to build on this momentum and ensure hospices are integrated into local planning and delivery conversations."

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