Highland Hospice is among a list of 14 signatories who have penned a letter warning that “hospice funding is in crisis”.
The missive comes in response to a National Insurance increase which has impacted the already stretched budgets of Scottish hospices.
Now many of these vital charities are warning that services will be cut to balance the books.
For Highland Hospice the National Insurance increase means having to pay an additional £171,000 annually. This comes after a 5.5 per cent pay rise for staff to keep pace with NHS wages had already added an additional £360,000 to the charity’s annual spend.
Unlike many hospices in Scotland, Highland Hospice is not considering cutting services because of increased spending. However, the inflated costs will have an impact on plans to increase care in the community, the organisation has warned.
Highland Hospice chief executive Kenny Steele said: “The reality of the situation is that we now must find an extra half a million annually just to maintain services at their current level.
“Thanks to the generous Highland community we are in the fortunate position of not having to consider cutting services, but we do have plans to develop our services and these ambitions will be dented by increasing costs.”
Mr Steele said that recently launched services such as the 24/7 Palliative Care Helpline and Rapid Response Services have been supporting people to be cared for at home for longer and avoiding the need for hospital admissions.
This has, in turn, been “showing incredibly positive results helping to relieve pressure on hospitals and delivering the care that people want”.
He added: “We desperately need significant reform of hospice funding if we are to play the valuable role that we know we can play in the health and care system.”
