Hospice faces funding crisis as costs spiral

Dorothy House Hospice Care looks after 2,986 patients

A hospice facing its worst funding crisis in 20 years is now raising more money through charity shops than it receives from the government.

Dorothy House Hospice Care in Wiltshire is one of more than 200 charitable hospices across the UK providing care to 300,000 people annually who have long-term illnesses or are approaching the end of their lives.

With people living longer and costs rising, it has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves for help in this month’s Budget.

A government spokesperson said the "challenged" sector would take time to fix.

Wayne de Leeuw, CEO of the Winsley-based hospice, said demand on its services is set to grow by another 25% by 2048 and it faces a battle just to "stand still".

“We need to look after people in our community, empower our communities, but ensure that people live as well as they possibly can.

"It's not good enough that people get to the end of life, have a crisis, end up in the wrong place and don't get the care that they need,” he said.

Demand on Dorothy House Hospice Care, based in Winsley, could grow by 25% before 2048

“So that's the call to the government and the size of the difference and the amount of money we need has been caused by a number of things.

“It's wonderful that we're all living older, and as we get older we get more conditions and need more support.

“But also costs have gone up. Everybody knows that inflation has been high. Our staff costs have gone up and people think that hospices get all their funding for their staff, and we don't.”

Dorothy House Hospice Care CEO Wayne de Leeuw said the current situation was "not good enough"

Despite dwindling resources, between April 2023 to April 2024, Dorothy Hospice Care looked after 2,986 patients, which is 5% more than the previous year.

It said 90% of its care takes place in the community and not at Winsley, where a day patient unit, family services team and an inpatient 10-bed unit are based.

“We know that we as an oranisation only care for half the people that we want to,” said Mr de Leeuw.

'Spending our reserves'

“From a Dorothy House perspective, we have been deliberately spending our reserves to care for more people because we have money that we want to spend on care.

“But as we look ahead to next year, we know that we have to raise a lot more money just to stand still. We know that we need our fundraising. But we also want the government to help meet that gap for us as well.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government has inherited huge challenges in the hospice sector, as well as a £22bn black hole in the public finances, so these problems will take time to fix.

“We are determined to shift more healthcare out of hospitals and into the community, to ensure patients and their families receive personalised care in the most appropriate setting, and hospices will have a big role to play in that shift.”