Staff from hospice charities across England are gathering in Westminster today (15 April) calling for “urgent action on funding, as services are cut and pressures reach breaking point”.

They will deliver a letter to the Prime Minister Keir Starmer and meet with MPs “to inform them of the reality of the crisis and calling for fair, sustainable funding”.

The protest has been organised by the charity Hospice UK, which represents more than 200 hospices.

It is warning that financial pressures have forced nearly three in five hospices in England to already make or plan cuts to frontline services this year. This includes making staff redundant leaving around 380 hospice beds unused “primarily because hospices cannot afford the staff to run them”.

Specialist community visits have fallen by 150,000 in a year, “despite rising demand”, it adds.

Hospice UK director of external affairs Charlie King said today’s action aims to “send a clear message to Government: the current funding model is failing, and patients are paying the price”.

The government plans to publish a Palliative and End-of-Life Care Modern Service Framework this year, to end “unwarranted variation in care by putting a floor under the kind of care that people can expect”, according to care minister Stephen Kinnock last year.

However, King warned that “many hospices cannot wait. They need urgent, sustainable funding now to prevent further cuts”.

Hospice UK wants the government to commit to £112.5m in additional recurring revenue funding for hospices.

This “would be a vital first step, preventing further devastating cuts and enabling hospices to continue delivering the care that patients and families rely on”, said King.

Among hospices to announce cuts in services due to funding concerns this year is Eastbourne based St Wilfrid’s Hospice, which announced in February it planned to axe its care services that provides visits to patients at home.

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