Scarborough's St Catherine's Hospice, York-based St Leonard's Hospice and Harrogate's Saint Michael's Hospice told North Yorkshire Council's scrutiny of health committee their position was ‘not sustainable or possible'.
The hospices face additional costs of £800,000 due to the National Minimum Wage, inflation and National Insurance Contributions combined with a decrease in the percentage of NHS funding from 27% to 25% without an inflationary rise.
A St Leonard's Hospice spokesperson said: ‘We want to reassure our community that we have no plans to make cuts to our services or redundancies. We remain financially secure and have good levels of reserve to support our ongoing work in the short term, however, these reserves will not last if we continue to see such poor levels of statutory funding in the coming years.'
Tony Collins, chief executive of North Yorkshire hospices Herriot Hospice Homecare and Saint Michael's Hospice, said: ‘Along with other hospice leaders in the York and North Yorkshire footprint, we've raised our concerns to North Yorkshire Council to campaign for fairer and more sustainable statutory funding from our ICB. This is something we've been actively campaigning on for over a year, highlighting the role hospices play in our local systems, amongst decreasing funding and increasing care need.
‘To keep ourselves on a sustainable footing and for us to plan effectively for the year ahead, considering redundancies and reviewing the structure of our services is something we're sadly having to do at Herriot Hospice Homecare and Saint Michael's Hospice, and we've seen many colleagues nationally having already done this, or now having to make these difficult decisions.
‘The Government's funding package announced before Christmas was much welcomed, but only goes so far as a one-off payment supporting capital projects, rather than the funding challenges we're facing now and in the year ahead.'
An NHS Humber and North Yorkshire ICB spokesperson said: ‘In England, the most common route for adult hospices to receive money from the Government is funding delivered via ICBs. In December 2024, the Government announced that hospices would receive a £100m funding boost over two years.
‘We are working with partners to achieve a system transformation within the current resource envelope. The funding boost is a starting point towards improved financial sustainability, but the ICB recognises the need to build on this momentum and ensure hospices are integrated into local planning and delivery conversations.'
