By Isle of Wight Observer
Mountbatten has been in the news recently around our funding, our relationship with the NHS and what it all means for us.
I am very grateful to the IW Observer for enabling me to use this column to explain what’s happening in more detail.
Mountbatten has two income streams. The first is fund-raising from the local community. This is alive, well and very healthy, as our wonderful Island community are extraordinary in their support for us.
Walk the Wight raised £460,000 last year – much more than in the past. We have a dedicated team working with supporters to keep fund-raising income buoyant. We remain truly grateful to our community, who continually get behind us and we never take that for granted.
Essentially, income from fund-raising pays for two thirds of all Mountbatten’s specialist end-of-life care services, which equates to around £7 million a year. We are currently supporting around 2,500 people on the Island in any one day. We don’t enjoy having to keep asking our community to support us, but we have no choice. We are very grateful to everyone for their ongoing commitment to helping Mountbatten.
The second key funding stream comes from the NHS. Mountbatten has a contract with the local NHS, and Mountbatten Isle of Wight receives £3 1/2 million a year from them to run specialist end-of-life care services on the Island. We have always had very good relationships with our local NHS commissioners.
The NHS income pays for one-third of Mountbatten’s services. Mountbatten reports to the NHS on the success of this contract, and what we achieve is impressive. Every year costs rise by around eight percent – pay awards, costs of living, energy bills and so on.
The NHS, this year, will not pay any uplift on the £3 1/2 million, leaving that funding stream with a gap of £350,000 for the Island’s only hospice. The All Party Parliamentary Group for Hospice and End of Life Care report, which was published this month, calls for NHS Integrated Care Boards to pass on the uplift to hospices that they are entitled to.
I do understand that money needs to be saved within the health and social care system for all kinds of reasons. However, at the end of such fund-cutting decisions are the people we care for and about – our families, our friends, our neighbours – all of us.
Care is not a commodity, and we will all deserve Mountbatten’s devastating duo of expertise and kindness when the time comes.
I hope that whoever needs to, listens to the recommendations in this report. Things cannot continue as they are, and we must now advocate at every opportunity for what is right and proper.
Together, we need to find our collective voice and influence so that any change that does happen will be for the good of everyone.
We can no longer expect the public to fund-raise in order to fill the increasing gaps in NHS funding left by inadequate annual uplifts and other potential cuts due to the need for cost savings.
You can read the report at iow.life/hospicereport.