THE chief executive of a hospice in North Essex has said that the government’s budget could lead to cuts in palliative care services in England.

Mark Jarman-Howe of St Helena’s hospice in Colchester said they were having to expand into cleaning businesses to make enough money.

Speaking on GB News, he said: “We’re one of the largest in the East of England, supporting nearly 4,500 patients and families every single year.

“The changes announced in the October budget, the combination of bringing down the threshold at which employers’ National Insurance takes effect, and increasing the rate, as well as the significantly above inflation increase in the national minimum wage is going to cost St Helena £385,000 next year.

“That’s equivalent to us having to raise more than £1,000 extra every single day, and it already costs us £54,000 a day to provide all of the care and support that we do in people’s homes, in the hospice and through our 24/7 support line.

“Well, I think your viewers will be somewhat surprised to know that we only get a 20% contribution from the National Health Service, so we’re having to generate [the rest] from the goodwill of our local community.

“We serve the whole of North Essex, so that’s Colchester, Harwich, Clacton, and we’re having to raise 80% of our income that we need.

“We’re raising more from our charity shops than we’re getting in our grant income from the NHS.

“We’re having to run cleaning businesses, care agencies, as well as all of our traditional fundraising and very generous gifts in wills.

“So it’s not for lack of innovation. It’s not for lack of effort. In fact, we’re working harder year on year.

“But the sad truth is this National Insurance rise is going to mean that we need to either find new ways of raising funds in a really competitive environment, or we’re going to have to cut services.

“And that leads us in a really invidious position when we’re already propping up the National Health Service.

“I think we need to remember, we’ve got some of the best palliative care in the world in the UK, and as a specialty. And the modern hospice movement as well, were both founded within the UK.

“So we’ve got much to be proud of in this country with the heritage that we’ve got. But the sad truth is that it’s been eroded in recent years: a combination of significant increases in demand post COVID, a big increase in costs of running care services, both in terms of pay utilities and cost of living.

“And also that’s hitting us at a time when we’re getting real term cuts in public sector funding. So it’s putting us in a really, really difficult position.

“I think we know the demand is there across the country as a whole. It’s about one in four people that would benefit from palliative care or hospice care who are not getting that at the moment.

“We’re doing slightly better than that in Colchester and North Essex at the moment. But the sad thing is, if there isn’t a reversal of the decision around the National Insurance, that we will go backwards, and we will start to see more inequity and more gaps opening up.”