Mountbatten Hospice faces NHS funding crisis amid increasing costs and demand
Bosses at Mountbatten Hampshire and Isle of Wight fear they may even have to turn dying patients away
A hospice in the South has raised concerns about the sustainability of its services as it continues to battle against increasing costs and reduced income.
The Mountbatten Group, comprising Mountbatten Isle of Wight and Mountbatten Hampshire, are charitable organisations which operate independently and are supported by local communities to provide crucial end-of-life care.
With an annual cost of £21 million to sustain Mountbatten’s services across the group, only £7 million comes from the NHS, leaving a substantial gap filled by fundraised income.
Mountbatten currently supports approximately 3,500 individuals across Hampshire and the Isle of Wight, a number expected to grow by 40% in the coming years, primarily due to the increasing elderly population.
Chief executive of Mountbatten Hampshire and Isle of Wight, Nigel Hartley MBE, expressed his concerns and said: “Another critical report from the APPG on Hospice and Palliative Care – but who is listening and who is being held accountable?
“I’ve worked in hospices for over 35 years, and I have never experienced such a critical and desperate time with regard to hospice funding from the NHS."
Mountbatten has maintained a stable contract with the local NHS, receiving about a third of its funding from them. However, an impending cut of £800,000 in April poses a significant threat.
Nigel Hartley MBE stressed: "If something doesn’t change soon, we will be saying goodbye to our beloved hospice movement, and the growing number of people who so desperately need our care will be left and ignored."
The hospice relies heavily on community support to which Hartley highlighted the importance of ‘consistent, competent and planned funding from NHS partners’.
He stressed the need for reciprocal relationships and warned against ignoring the crisis stating: “We also need our relationships with them to be healthy and reciprocal but we can no longer sit back and ignore this – we will not sit back and ignore this.”