Desperate hospice urges Reeves to rethink crippling taxes to save vital jobs and beds

A STRUGGLING hospice has urged Rachel Reeves to help charities battle her crippling tax rises as it faces making 33 job cuts and closing nine beds to save £2.6million.

- BY CHRIS RICHES

Ashgate Hospice announced two months ago that it was having to slash services due to insufficient NHS support.

Last week, thanks to £244,000 in donations to the charity's Save a Precious Bed Appeal, it said it had enough to keep two of the nine beds going for another six months.

Public funding also secured four full-time nurse posts and three full-time healthcare assistant posts on fixed-term contracts at the 21-bed hospice in Chesterfield, Derbys, allowing it to care for 25 more patients.

But chief executive Barbara-Anne Walker believes that, without more help and a big Labour Budget U-turn, beds will still close and more adults will be robbed of dignified end-of-life care.

She told the Express that Rachel Reeves's 2024 increases to the national living wage and employer national insurance contributions added £700,000 to the hospice's annual £18.5m costs, which were already affected by inflation and rising energy bills.

"It has become much more challenging - a perfect storm," she said.

"I ask the Chancellor and Health Secretary to visit and see for themselves.

"I want them to come up with a sustainable funding model that allows hospices like ours not only to survive but to thrive.

Outcry

"For each patient, we only have one chance to get it right. If the UK had specialist baby units funded by people running marathons and shopping in charity shops, there would be an outcry - and with good reason.

"Costs have gone up. And we don't get that provided by the government. So we have to find it for ourselves. Then you factor in that the demand for our services is increasing.

"We're caring for 18% more patients than we were a couple of years ago."