Hospices facing ever increasing financial pressures, how we can help.
We all know that charities across the county are struggling to meet their funding needs more and more and hospices are no different. The hospice network provide essential, end of life care and support to both patients and families and are an essential part of our healthcare infrastructure. Without them, many people would suffer more than they need to.
In a recent article in the Telegraph the plight of the hospices was made clear stating that “hospices in the UK are facing a devastating financial crisis due to rising staff costs, putting their services at risk. The sector leaders have called on the Government to provide more funding, as the recent increase of 1.2% is deemed unfair and inadequate. The UK hospice sector is reporting a collective deficit of £77m for the 2023-24 financial year, with staffing costs being the main driver. Hospices struggle to match NHS pay rises, resulting in a surge of 11% in payroll costs. Without a new funding model, hospice care services could be severely impacted, leading to halting vital services and devastating consequences for patients, families, and the NHS, the chief executive of Hospice UK, Toby Porter, said.”
However, hospices are not wholly funded by the NHS as many believe. Whilst they do get some funding from the government and health service, typically no more than a third, the vast majority of their funding comes from private fundraising initiatives and this is where we and other businesses can help.
As a business we adopted our local hospice St Lukes Harrow last year as our Charity of the Year in 2023, this means not only do we donate funds to them over the year, but we also help promote their work throughout our network and clients and encourage both our staff and contacts to engage with the charity in many different areas.
For us this includes sending out information on their activities, sponsoring areas of their gardens, working with them to put on fundraising events and giving advise on how to engage with the local community when we can.
As a charity, they are looking to engage with more businesses in the community so if your business is looking to support a local charity, they are definitely a worthy cause. If you want to find out more about St Lukes click here or read more about the work we do with them and the other charities we support here.