Challenging Times for Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice
"All change’ in local health management"

The running of the NHS is being put into the hands of a number of local bodies called “Primary Care Trusts” (PCTs), which will reflect the needs of the community they serve.  The Government has swept away the old ‘market’ system of purchasers (e.g. your local GP or health authority) and providers (e.g. hospitals and clinics).

The consensus is that this change is a sensible philosophy, but the devil will, no doubt, be in the detail, in getting the expected benefits to emerge from a complex mesh of local health priorities and interests.

Awards of future grants to service providers like Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice look as if they will also be devolved to the new PCTs.

This is expected to impact on us in about April 2002.  As we do not know if the several PCTs that make up our patient area in West Surrey and North & Mid Hants, will all agree that palliative care is one of their priorities, this change creates some anxiety.  What happens if they decide not to allocate us some of their budget?  It poses the problem of finding the lost income in an increasingly competitive fundraising environment.  Meanwhile, to promote our case will inevitable direct scarce resources away from patient care and business management.

We currently receive just 17% of our income from West Surrey Health Authority.  Although a substantial sum, compare it with the average for other hospices around the UK.  About 30-50%, depending on the money available to their health authorities and on local policy.  Currently, no overall guidelines mean that hospice care is another ‘postcode lottery’ where geographical location affects whether you may r4eceive hospice care or not.  The hospice movement and thousands of its supporters do not consider this to be a satisfactory state of affairs.  Ongoing dialogue continues between them and Health Secretary Alan Milburn, the object of which is to provide the government to make a bigger contribution to this vital work – this may arrive too late to help some hospices.

Sadly, a recent paper from Help the Hospices, indicated 50% of charitable hospices in the UK have increasing deficits, due to progressive NHS underfunding of grants.  No wonder then, that there are only 50 Hospice beds per million population.

By far the largest part of the work of caring for people with illness where no cure is likely, (known clinically as palliative care), is done by just 154* independent, charitable hospices, of which Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice is one.

Inevitably, expenditure rises.  The Hospice is not exempt from the spiraling costs of legislation such as the EC-inspired Working Times Regulations, sector pay awards and Health & Safety.  Our senior Hospice staff are now obligated to participate in many consultative bodies and government ‘initiatives’ which require responses without claimable resources. This time consuming work, added to the cost of covering their absence puts further squeeze on an already ‘tight’ budget.  One might expect such important and compassionate work as palliative care to be totally provided by the state.  BUT THIS IS NOT SO!  So, it becomes necessary to return to our supporters and you, the public for more money.

We do not charge anyone referred to us – which means we need to fund £2.25 million to run the Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice and care for our patients in the current year.  We, of course, have to meet the cost of administering the charity to the professional standards required by the authorities.  Despite this, satisfyingly, some 82 pence of every pound you give us is spent as you wish, i.e. delivering care to our patients.

Although it is quite understandable that people who give to charity want to provide a tangible item, Hospice care is overwhelmingly about “touch” rather than “technology”.  So by far our most pressing need is to provide the cost of medical and nursing care for our patients.  Making us a gift of a ‘block of care’ helps a patient by directly providing the clinical care they need.  May I encourage you to think about supporting us in this way?

Finally, if you like to mix your charitable giving with a little fun, you will find in this issue events to suit every taste and level of energy.  The common theme is that all the profits will help us care for those in desperate need at Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice.

Welcome to the second edition of “Hospice Life”.  If you agree, after you have read it, that hospices are about LIFE, you will have caught the spirit of what we are all about.

David Kinnear
Director of Fundraising

top of page