Hospice Funding: Devon

Martin Docherty-Hughes Excerpts

Wednesday 17th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Simon Jupp]

The hon. Gentleman makes a very good point about Seaton Hospice at Home, and it does a fantastic job for the residents of Seaton and the surrounding area. He also makes a good point about Seaton Hospital, which of course we face challenges with locally, as he knows all too well as the Member for Tiverton and Honiton. It is important to recognise that NHS Property Services is an arm’s length body. Having said that, recent meetings with one of the Ministers who has sponsorship of NHS Property Services has shed some light on the attempt to make sure that that building of Seaton Hospital is protected for future generations.

But I want to speak about somewhere else in Devon briefly. My hon. Friend the Member for North Devon (Selaine Saxby) cannot be here, but I am told North Devon Hospice has been trying to get its hospice at home service commissioned for a decade. The ICB agrees that it should be but will still not fund the service, which saves North Devon District Hospital £2.7 million through avoided admissions. Similarly, my hon. Friend the Member for South West Devon (Sir Gary Streeter) and the hon. Member for Plymouth, Sutton and Devonport (Luke Pollard) have raised the same issues with St Luke’s Hospice in Plymouth. This is plainly unfair; now must be the time to strengthen our hospices, give them fairer funding and help them take pressure off the NHS.

[Martin Docherty-Hughes (West Dunbartonshire) (SNP)]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for introducing this Adjournment debate. The threats faced by the charitable palliative care sector in East Devon are emulated in my own constituency in Scotland. I have two of the largest hospices in Scotland, St Margaret of Scotland Hospice in Whitecrook and the children’s hospice in Ballach, and the big challenge is how to be taken seriously by NHS managerial structures. There are vibrant and committed palliative care structures in these two charities, but sometimes the biggest challenge is them being taken seriously by community health partnerships in my area or integrated care boards in the hon. Gentleman’s area.

[Simon Jupp]

The hon. Gentleman has hit the nail on the head; he is absolutely right. Now must be the time to strengthen our hospices, give them fairer funding, and help them take pressure off the NHS. Hospiscare has calculated that its services save between two and three hospital admissions every day. These are patients the local NHS will have to cover if the hospice has to cut its services. Sidmouth Hospice at Home has calculated that it is saving the NHS locally more than 1,300 nights of hospital stays through preventing admission, shortening stay lengths and speeding up discharges. Is that not what we want?

The benefits of fairer funding are plain to see. Strengthening our local hospices takes pressure off our NHS, but without fairer funding, and given the perfect storm of less fundraising income, more costs and more demand, there is a real risk they may have to cut vital services. That includes in-patient beds and specialist community nursing provision. This cannot be allowed to happen. That is why I urge the NHS in Devon to listen to the case I have made today and the Minister to back my call. It is high time for fairer funding for our brilliant hospices in Devon.