Over €10m in guaranteed recurring funding introduced to six voluntary hospices starting 2021
An additional €10.68 million in recurring annual funding has been set for six voluntary hospices providing a range of palliative care and other services for adults from this year, Irish Medical Times reports.
The funding is being allocated to hospices which make up the Voluntary Hospice Group. Adult hospice services at Our Lady’s Hospice and Care Services, Harold’s Cross, Blackrock and Wicklow; St Francis Hospice, Raheny and Blanchardstown; Marymount Hospice, Cork; Milford Care Centre, Limerick; North West Hospice, Sligo and Galway Hospice are to receive funding under this move.
Fixed guaranteed funding has been sought for the voluntary hospice sector for some time. The additional funding is to help to address the core funding shortfall, which had contributed to the ongoing financial sustainability challenges of the sector, in seeking to respond to the rising demand for high quality, accessible, palliative and end-of-life care in the last two decades.
The Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly, commended the voluntary hospice sector for its efforts to maintain critical and ongoing care services against the background of the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“They have supported our acute hospitals, community healthcare services and nursing homes to ensure a compassionate response for those with palliative care needs and their families throughout this difficult period,†he added.
The children’s hospice, LauraLynn Hospice, is to receive €1.5m in recurring funding in 2021 under the National Service Plan 2021.
The additional €1.5m in core funding is to support the delivery of palliative care services by LauraLynn hospice next year, including respite and end-of-life care, homecare, family support, inpatient symptom control, and bereavement care.
The Department of Health confirmed this funding is to recur on an annual basis.
The service delivery arrangements are to be decided by the Health Service Executive in the 2021 National Service Plan.
LauraLynn Hospice received a once off allocation of €750,000 in 2020, as part of the €10m in once off funding allocated to the voluntary palliative care sector in the last quarter of 2020.
