Anna Sabine MP secures meeting with minister on hospice care in first PMQs

The Prime Minister Keir Starmer today promised local MP Anna Sabine a meeting with the relevant minister to discuss her concerns about hospice funding. At today’s PMQs – Anna's first - she spoke on behalf of local hospice Dorothy House and asked the Prime Minister to assist them in continuing their crucial work in her first PMQ. 

Speaking of the local hospice which supports terminally ill people and their families throughout her constituency of Frome and East Somerset, Anna spoke of the damage the rise in the Employer’s National Insurance Contributions could do to the organisation.  

Supporting over 3000 people with end-of-life care last year alone, Dorothy House has said the rise in NICs will add an additional cost of £422,000 to their financial overheads and could potentially affect their ability to provide services moving forward.  

“Next year Dorothy House will be looking forward to celebrating 50 years of service” Anna told Prime Minister Kier Starmer in the chamber, “but they will also be facing an additional cost of £422,000 thanks to increases in employer’s national insurance. Will the Prime Minister commit to meeting with representatives of the hospice sector hear the first-hand impact of the NICs and work with them to find a solution?”. 

Having visited with Dorothy House CEO Wayne de Leeuw last week and toured the facilities of their in-house care, Anna heard about the further service the hospice provides with 90% of their services happening in the homes of those who are terminally ill and their families. The hospice is predominantly funded by charitable donations; the south west receives the lowest percentage of funding for hospice care across England at just 24%, and the need for end of life care predicted to rise by 25% by 2048.  

Anna has personal experience of the amazing work Dorothy House does when a close friend and her family were looked after during the end of her life last year, and Anna feels strongly that charities and organisations that are already picking up the shortfall of care left by lack of Government funding, shouldn’t be further hindered from their work through additional costs.  

Tony De Jaeger, Deputy CEO & Director of Finance - Dorothy House Hospice Care, said, 

“We urgently need the support of our community and the government to ensure we continue offering the specialist care and support that our patients and their families deserve. No one should face death alone and yet this additional £422,000 annual National Insurance cost places huge pressure on our workforce to make impossible decisions about our services.” 

In response to Anna’s question, the Prime Minister recognised “the pressure that hospices are facing” and further committed to “make sure that [Anna] gets a meeting with the relevant minister”. Citing the £100 million the Government has promised to hospices, Anna will be seeking a meeting to ensure more of that funding is fairly distributed to the south west.  

Speaking after PMQs Anna said “I'm glad the PM has listened and promised a ministerial meeting on this.  It’s shocking that the south west lags so far behind other areas when it comes to hospice funding, and I want to do all I can to support the excellent Dorothy House in everything they do.”  

END.