Hospice fears on nurses ' pay by Coky Giedroyc

THE RECENT nurses' pay award threatens to cripple Britain's hospices. This was the message from the Duchess of Norfolk, Chair of Help the Hospices, who has written to the Minister of State for Health, Antony Newton, calling on the Government to meet the extra costs which the hospices will have to bear.
The Duchess said in a statement that "in hospices we have always paid our nursing staff the going NHS rates. To do otherwise would be to exploit our devoted and hard working staff. Our calculations are that the nurses' pay award will increase hospice running costs by at least 15 per cent in a full year . . . Such an extra burden could cripple many of our hospices. This sort of money cannot be found by rattling a few more tins in the High Street".
Of the existing 120 in-patient hospices in the UK, approximately 100 are in the voluntary sector. Most receive some financial aid from their local health authorities, but some receive none. Even those hospices which do receive state help rarely get more than 25 per cent of their running costs.
Hospice care still relies on charitable giving for survival. St Joseph's Hospice, Hackney, East London, is one such place. Dependent on donations of up to £1 million a year, the hospice "would suffer very very greatly if the government does not meet the extra costs which took effect from April 1", John Scott, the hospice administrator told the Catholic Herald.
For those health authorities which give financial aid to voluntary hospices there is no obligation to meet any part of the pay award. Therefore, unless state funding is specifically earmarked for the voluntary hospices, health authorities will have no increase in funds to meet the pay award crisis.