'Unsustainable' rising costs force hospice to make redundancies
A city hospice has been forced to make significant redundancies after rising costs which it said was unsustainable.
Birmingham Hospice has announced that due to the rising costs and an estimated £2.4 million deficit budget this year, the charity is being forced to reduce its number of inpatient beds and cut the equivalent of 45 full-time roles, around 14 per cent of its overall workforce.
It said that the last few years have seen big increases in its costs, including the price paid for energy, food and drugs, and the funding it receives from the NHS has not risen at the same rate.
As the gap between costs and income continues to rise significantly, senior leaders from Birmingham Hospice have called crisis talks with NHS commissioners to negotiate additional funding.
Simon Fuller, CEO of Birmingham Hospice, said: “The prospect of having to make highly skilled specialist end of life clinicians and support staff redundant is totally unpalatable.
"We are doing everything we can to support all our hospice colleagues through this difficult time.
“Birmingham Hospice has been working with Hospice UK and other hospices nationally to seek support to address the financial challenges across the sector.
