Hospice joins calls for long-term financial help

Emma Radley is CEO of Katharine House Hospice

An Oxfordshire hospice has joined calls for more long-term financial help to pay staff salaries, despite a government pledge of £100m for the sector.

Katharine House Hospice, in Adderbury, welcomed the capital grant for buildings and equipment but said wages and bills were "increasingly hard to cover".

From April, hospices will face additional National Insurance contributions as well as national minimum wage rises.

Hospice CEO Emma Radley said she was "delighted" that the government was "recognising that hospices are underfunded".

Louise Ludlow, who has late stage ovarian cancer, said she had "a very good experience" at Katharine House, adding: "The staff have all been wonderful and responsive to my symptom management.

"This time, they're helping me through this really difficult transition from being really well to dying and I feel comfortable and at peace."

Louise Ludlow is a patient at Katharine House

The hospice said it needs to raise £3.5m a year to fund 10 inpatient beds and a community team but it has been in deficit for the last couple of years and has recently let go five members of staff.

Ms Radley told the BBC: "I think all hospices would say what we need is better funding for hospices every day.

"The revenue funding for nurses' salaries, doctors' salaries, gas, electric - all of those costs are going up and that is increasingly hard to cover."

Katharine House Hospice is in Adderbury

The government announced last year that hospices across England would receive £100m, saying families would see improved end-of-life care as a result.

Last week, it confirmed the release of £25m for "facility upgrades and refurbishments" for hospices across England.

An additional £75m is due to be made available from April.

The announcement came after hospice leaders warned they were forced to close beds due to increasing financial pressures.

The department for health said it was "the biggest investment in hospices in a generation".

Only about a third of hospice funding in England comes from the NHS, the rest has to be raised from donations, fundraising and charity shops.