10:43am Monday 23rd September 2002
By Linda Piper
FOR the past 10 months, News Shopper has campaigned for fair funding for children's hospices. Now, with a second hospice due to open in east London, the fight for cash to fund hospice care for children in our area is becoming desperate. Chief Reporter LINDA PIPER outlines the issues ...
THE news a new children's hospice is about to open in London, providing a range of care for sick children and their families, is a source of comfort and pride.
But the opening of Richard House, just the other side of the Thames, in Beckton, at the end of next month, will have fundraisers keeping their fingers crossed.
The hospice has already been providing day facilities, and will be opening its first four of eight residential beds, but the new facilities will need £1.75m a year to keep it going.
Demelza House, in Sittingbourne, Kent, also has eight beds and, up until now, has been the only hospice offering care to children in Kent and south east London. It costs £1.6m a year. So where is all the cash going to come from?
It will come from people like Ann McClarnon, who has just swum the English Channel for Demelza House, and others like her, who will organise events or give money.
NHS funding
But, as the children's hospice movement grows, it just isn't realistic to expect for charity to pay for it all.
News Shopper is campaigning to persuade the Government to fund children's hospices from NHS funds, in the same way as it funds adult hospices.
Adult hospices get between a third and half their annual running costs paid by the NHS. For children's hospices it averages four per cent but, in reality, many get nothing.
MPs from around the country are behind the News Shopper campaign and have written to Government ministers. But we believe the Government's reply shows a lack of understanding of the true position of children's hospices.
Public health minister Hazel Blears has told several MPs NHS funding for hospices is available through local Primary Care Trusts. But the reality is, when the PCTs divide up the cash, there is usually none left for children's hospice care.
As Gravesham MP Chris Pond said earlier this year: "The Government has set aside £170m for palliative care but children's hospices always fall off the end of the list."
Ms Blears also talks about cash being provided through local authorities to support carers, including funding respite care in children's hospices.
All of these initiatives are welcomed. But they still won't pay to keep hospice beds open.
And they won't alter the fact the 23 children's hospices across the country have to scratch around for every penny to keep their services going.
CHANELLING CASH TO DEMELZA
Anna McClarnon, 31, sports and recreation manager at Greenwich University, swam the Channel for Demelza House after reading the News Shopper's campaign.
It took her 24 hours and eight minutes to complete the swim and raise £1,500 for the hospice.
She said: "It was the hardest thing I have ever done. When I clambered onto the rocks and the horn sounded to signal the end of the swim, I couldn't even summon up the energy to be happy. But I am chuffed to bits.
"I was down at Dover the other day sitting on the beach. I looked at the sea and I thought I've swum that'. It was fantastic."
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