It never ceases to amaze me that local health boards support perhaps 18-20% of hospice funding and the rest (in St Kents case 4,000 £ a DAY) has to be beg, borrowed and donated from the general public.
How horrendous.
Hospice care should be part of the NHS...ok charitable support would always be of benefit as the specific costs within palliative care can be dreadfully high especially as in patient numbers are relatively low , but leaving hospice care"out in the cold" in this terribly fragile economic climate, tome , borders on the insane.
This worrying statement has been left on the official St Kentigern website:
Over the last 12 months we have seen our income drop by £300,000 whilst the costs of providing care is increasing by 10% annually. We are not alone in this situation but as a result of this we have had to make a number of very difficult decisions. These include reducing the number of inpatient beds from 8 to 4 and restricting our day care service. This has had a knock on effect and resulted in us having to reduce our staff numbers..
In-patient beds will be available for low complexity patients for terminal care and palliative respite.
Day Unit will provide care for up to 10 patients Mon to Thurs from 11am to 3pm and Friday will continue as appointments only to see the Advanced Nurse Practitioner.
The Social Worker and Family Support Worker will continue in their services but in a part time basis
My brother has some lovely district nurses. The input he has had from the medics has also been very good indeed. But the availability of hospice support in the long term, I know , will be vital.
Their respite care is second to none, but after reading the above circular...I can only hope that it and the rest of the unit's holistic care packages can be maintained.
It's a tragedy certainly John...and I've no idea what the solution is.
ReplyDeleteHealth care is a conundrum...especially here in Canada.
My late sister, Lynne spent a lot of her last few years in the wonderful Earl Mountbatten hospice on the Isle of Wight. I shudder to think how she and her family would have coped but for that establishment.
A sign of the times John. Health care spending should be 'ringfenced'. Cuts should be found only where there is wastage.
ReplyDeleteWhat a shame. Hospice care is so important. Perhaps a fund raiser of some kind?
ReplyDeleteI endorse all you say about hospices John. When I lived in Wolverhampton and retired from teaching I worked as a volunteer on the nursing station two mornings a week for about ayear, until we moved up here. I found the work so rewarding and what is more the atmosphere was always happy and upbeat. The inevitability of death was treated in such a way that it just became a part of life - there seemed to be no fear, no trauma - just a general feeling of support and love. I still support the movement up here. We have various charity shops for our local hospice and they all do very well indeed.
ReplyDeleteYes, quite insane. I once watch a documentary on a Zen Hospice in California and thought that was just the best thing (the Hospice)ever!
ReplyDeleteSigh.
I saw a good postcard pinned to a wall the other day, it read: "Wouldn't it be good if it were the other way round, and the Army had to raise money for wars with jumble sales in the same way we have to for schools and hospitals?"
ReplyDeleteThe 'hospice' is by no means a new idea, but it is a bloody good one. They have usually been funded (in the past!) by a percentage of the booty from the Crusades and Holy Wars, and have always been charitable. I have many friends who have spent their last days in the wonderful care of highly trained and highly skilled and sensitive nurses for the Dorothy House Foundation. The charitable funding should at least be matched by the NHS - shouldn't it?
If more politicians (or their families) needed hospice care you would see a big change in their funding priorities!
ReplyDeleteGetting and affording health care(in the states) is a big problem and is only getting worse. Hospice is covered by insurance (if you have the money) and from my experience with friends who have used this service, the care given was wonderful. These people who devote their lives to the dying are the most special people in the world. All my friends did home care hospice as they wished to be surrounded by the people and things in their life that they loved.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about what you must be going through.
I think we (governments) have it ass-backwards and our priorities are in a mess. Health care should be number 1! Amazing how governments can always find billions of dollars for wars, multi-nationals and the like, but never for health and education. Something is seriously wrong with 'the state of Denmark'! And it won't change till WE demand a change.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I'm on a roll....we should have to depend on fund-raisers. That is an effective governments job. We should not be getting them 'off the hook'!
ReplyDeleteVery troubling.
ReplyDeleteI am with you on the health care, it should be part of the NHS package. I hope all the services are there when Andrew needs them!
ReplyDeleteHope the money and care are there when your brother needs them. I'm sure one of the main reasons my husband was able to receive hospice care was because he was 100% disabled and received his regular health care through the Veteran's Administration. I will not be that fortunate I'm sure...everything related to healthcare is in such a muddle over here in the states who knows what will available down the road! And yet we keep fighting wars!
ReplyDeleteYou are so right John. Why should hospice care be seen as some almost unnecessary extra service? It should always have been part and parcel of the NHS. At my last school in Sheffield we raised hundreds of pounds for South Yorkshire's only children's hospice - Bluebell Wood. But why? I would rather be raising money for Oxfam - not for a vital end-of-life service that should be publicly funded. Good heavens - the UK is a very rich country. We have plenty of money for killing Afghans and Libyans but the purse is apparently empty when we look for support for dying children and cancer victims in their last weeks of life.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you 100% John I've always thought that hospice care should be part of the NHS.
ReplyDeleteNot likely to happen any time soon though I suspect.
Wow. I am shocked. Like so many ill-informed and badly read Americans I thought hospice over there had to be better than it is here. Wrong. In the US Hospice is 100% covered under our Medicare program and most private insurances. Most of our hospice care takes place in the pts home and our government figured out a few decades ago it is much cheaper to care for someone at home than in the hospital. I was a hospice director and nurse for 11 years. The best years of my career. You, your brother and your family are in my prayers John
ReplyDeleteI tend to agree that hospice care should be prioritized way higher than it is and be provided for when we need it. It's barbaric that only a fraction of their operating costs are government provided. Having said that, I'm not terribly sure if the NHS can survive in its present form given new expensive meds and replacement operations which each year push the boundaries even more. Perhaps there is an argument which says if you are employed and 18-65 then you pay a co pay of say 20% for which you'd buy top up insurance. Much like the French system which I think is about the best in the world (and yet also under financial strain).
ReplyDeleteOh John, sometimes I wish I was a little bit closer. But with you there I've no doubt Andrew will navigate his passage as comfortably as possible.
ReplyDeleteDia