It is unsatisfactory and unsustainable for hospices in our region to rely on charitable donations to make up the majority of their costs, say North East MPs who have written to the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The letter emphasised that hospices should not rely on charitable donations for the majority of their funding, and that specialist palliative and end-of-life care should be prioritised.

The letter, dated today (Wednesday, May 17) was signed by a combination of Conservative and Labour MPs in our region.

The letter read: “It would be fair to say that we remain disappointed that the tremendous opportunity to be at the forefront of Palliative Care appears to be missed.

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“We note the points you made in respect of Hospice reserves, an issue which, in our view, has no relevance to the funding of Commissioned Services.

“Whilst we recognise that hospices cannot, should not and do not provide all specialist palliative and end-of-life care services, for those services that are specifically mandated and a hospice is the sole or primary provider (e.g. specialist inpatient beds) then as you will know, Claus 16 of the 2012 Health and Care Act requires services to be adequately commissioned which includes an appropriate funding envelope in line with any relevant statutory guidance.

This clearly is not currently the case with most hospices relying on charitable donations or reserves to make up the majority of the costs. This is an unsatisfactory and unsustainable position and we would like to see a clear explanation and timeline for how the NHS funding of those specific services will improve this year.

“For the specific services that fall within the definition of the Act and a hospice is the sole or primary provider, neither the Act nor the guidance suggest charitable reserves should be used to offset costs to the NHS. These reserves may have been donated for specific purposes or contingencies and it would be useful to understand whether you apply the same test when commissioning other services such as mental health care, primary care, dentistry, pharmacy from independent providers too?

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“When Parliament supported the amendment to the Health and Care Act last year it was with a clear expectation that meaningful change would follow and that specialist palliative care and end-of-life care services, including those provided by hospices, would be prioritised for NHS funding as part of the significant level of public funding we invest in the NHS every year.

“Whilst we appreciate change takes time, our local hospices are facing significant pressures and as a cross-party group of MPs we are all committed to ensure our constituents continue to receive the best specialist palliative and end of life care they deserve.

“We note that the ICB have uplifted all existing Hospice contracts by 1.8% but we would ask you to clarify with each of the Hospices as to what % of the commissioned cost is fully funded by you. To repeat the point above Commissioned Services cannot and should not rely on charitable giving of voluntary organisations. Further to this, no detail is provided on where the 1.8% uplift you have given actually meets the real increased costs you know every organisation is facing. We know too that the DHSC provided ICBs with funding to meet inflationary costs and if our ICB has only provided 1.8% it is abundantly clear to all that there will be a shortfall.

“I trust you will appreciate our collective disappointment in your response which has taken the ICB more than 2 months to provide us with. We do expect the ICB to work with our precious Hospices in a collaborative and productive manner to deliver the best palliative care to our constituents, which we consider is still not being met.

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“We look forward to your further detailed responses on this issue, in the meantime, we will each continue to press the case for our Hospices, both in our constituencies and in Parliament to ensure you provide the palliative care our constituents deserve and which Parliament intended in the HSCA.”

Mr Gibson told The Northern Echo: “As a Hospice Trustee myself, Co-Chair of the APPG in Parliament for Hospices, and a supporter of our precious local Hospice at St Teresa’s this is a campaign, along with every other Tees Valley MP I am proud to lead on.

“Our community deserves the very best palliative care, Parliament expects our Local ICB to commission that and it should not expect hardworking volunteers raising funds at bake sales, fun runs, wing walks and skydives to fund those commissioned services.”

The letter was signed by; Peter Gibson MP for Darlington, Simon Clarke MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, Alex Cunningham MP for Stockton North, Paul Howell MP for Sedgefield, Andy McDonald MP for Middlesbrough, Jill Mortimer MP for Hartlepool, Matt Vickers MP for Stockton South, and Jacob Young MP for Redcar.