Hospice aid queried

IN response to pressure from Help the Hospices for funds to help meet the nurses' pay award in that sector, the Department of Health on Friday announced that £400,000 would be made available to voluntary hospices which run up deficits this year.
Only one Catholic hospice, St Raphael's in North Cheam, will benefit under these terms, however. A spokesperson at St Raphael's said: "News of the grant is absolutely wonderful. Before we only got a grant for our home care team, which amounted to just eight per cent of our running costs." The government terms for fund allocation mean that St Gemma's Hospice, Moortown, Leeds does not qualify for additional support. "St Gemma's costs £1.3 million per year to run," said Canon Joseph Lyons, its adminstrator. "The nurses' pay award means that we face extra costs of £116,000 per year which we just can't manage."
Canon Lyons was puzzled as to why St Gemma's, which "does three times as much work as any other hospice in the region", has been overlooked. "You'd think we would have the greatest priority," he said.