Surrey hospice CEO: "It is not an appropriate or acceptable situation"
The CEO of Woking and Sam Beare spoke to us about the current situation for hospices around the country
Woking and Sam Beare Hospice provides end of life care for thousands of people and their families each year.
Each year, operational costs for them, to keep running with all their services are around £11 million.
The hospice gets about 30% of this cost (about £3 million) covered by the NHS, however that still leaves £8 million which has to be raised by the hospice.
The hospice accomplishes this through various events and appeals, as well as stores around Woking.
CEO Mark Byrne says that it's not a reasonable situation to be in where hospices have to raise this much money to stay afloat.
"It is not an appropriate or acceptable situation that the level of funding is such that we have to work so hard to deliver what is what is in effect a clinical right for our community and to be able to avail of a of a as peaceful a death as is possible."
Byrne adds that he is extremely grateful for the community surrounding the hospice
"We are very aware that our community here in Woking, plus say 10 to 20 miles are extraordinarily good to us.
They're very supportive in both financial sense, and being helpful in terms of volunteering."
Mark Byrne says he has noticed other hospices having to make sacrifices
"Some of my colleagues nationally have had to cut clinical services, they've had to let go clinical members of staff and that's a really difficult choice to have to make.
So we've given a commitment, we will continue offering the services we're offering today"
Byrne added that although other hospices were making cuts, he wanted to be very clear that people shouldn't expect any cuts in services from the Woking and Sam Beare Hospice.
Byrne also said, with a little bit of extra funding, the difference could go a long way, not just for hospices
"I'm talking a small increase in national funding, we could actually grow our services considerably and the the the impact on that would be we could help alleviate the pressures on the A&E front door in Ashford St. Peter's Hospital or in Royal Surrey and certainly go a long way to alleviating the pressures in our for colleagues in primary care as well."
Woking MP Will Forster has described the situation regarding hospices around the country as frightening
"What's frightening is 50% of children's hospices say they might have to stop providing end of life care altogether, or at least scale it back. So hospices are really, really struggling.
Will Forster also himself acknowledged that the Woking-based hospice wasn't in any trouble, he however says that the situation isn't reasonable.
It's completely unsustainable or a real challenge. They have to raise a small fortune isn't reasonable. There is no let up for them and I think if the government could shoulder a bit more of the burden"
The Government say that they recognise there is more to do, and that they are exploring how they can improve the access, quality and sustainability of all-age palliative care and end of life care in line with their 10-Year Health Plan.