Palliative Care

(asked on 24th May 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of current levels of statutory funding for palliative care services provided by independent hospices in meeting projected future demand for those services.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 17th June 2021

The Government recognises the importance of palliative and end of life care services, including hospices. The hospice sector has played a vital role in the national response to the COVID-19 pandemic and received up to £280 million of additional funding from March 2020 to March 2021.

The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement proactively engage with the whole sector to understand the issues they face. Most hospices are independent, charitable organisations that receive some statutory funding, mainly from clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) for providing local services. CCGs will have an understanding of future demand and associated funding requirements. There are seven regional Palliative and End of Life Care Strategic Clinical Networks working closely with CCGs and integrated care systems to understand the needs, sustainability and future commissioning of palliative and end of life care services.

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