A THIRD of beds will be axed at St Giles Hospice as it battles to plug a £1.5million funding gap.
The Whittington-based charity confirmed in August that jobs would go as part of plans to tackle a hole in its budget.
But bosses have now confirmed that it will focus on “very core specialist palliative care services” with the loss of 21 posts as well as a reduction from 23 to 15 beds – with 12 being specialist palliative care and three for end of life patients.
Elinor Eustace, interim CEO of St Giles Hospice, said:
“We remain fully committed to providing outstanding end of life care to local people and their families, where and when they need it.
“However, the landscape in which hospices operate is evolving and St Giles needs to adapt to keep up with changes and challenges currently being faced in palliative and end of life care, while ensuring good financial management.
“Following careful consideration and consultation, we have consolidated our services to focus on our core specialist palliative care provision.
“While these decisions have been incredibly difficult, they are essential to safeguard the future of our services and ensure the long-term survival of St Giles.”
The hospice, which has been operational for more than 40 years, said it had seen a real-terms reduction in statutory funding while also balancing “significant” increases in operational costs.
The position has been worsened by the cost of living crisis leading to challenges in generating donations from the public.
Robin Vickers, chair of the board of trustees at St Giles Hospice, said:
“Our priority throughout this process has been to maintain the highest possible level of care while ensuring the long-term sustainability of our services.
“We have consolidated our community care provision to create a seamless journey for our patients, specifically retaining and combining our advice and referrals centre, Hospice at Home, respite and community nursing services.”
I presume St Giles along with care homes are not part of the public sector so will now have to fund the full cost of the National Insurance increase imposed by the Labour Government?
The result is?
Or the council tax, increased minimum wage and lack of staff
From a position of privilege, equality seems like oppression.
The last forty years have seen wealth favoured at the expense of labour.
More equal, and more successful, societies do not believe wealth should be taxed less than earned income.
Over to you Dave to start earning your corn and start campaigning to reverse this awful decision
Does anyone know if records of the finances of St Giles can be viewed by members of the public? I’d be very interested to know how much the re-branding and refurbishment of their charity shops cost, and also the cost of the elephants along with how much money they raised. I’d also be interested to know how the impact of the re-branding is measured – has it resulted in increased sales and donations, for example?
@Herbert Hogwash… The Report and Accounts for 2023 are available on the Internet. There are 57 pages which take some interpretation. Your Elephants get a mention on page 49.
It is clear that St. Giles is a very complex organisation with many sources of income. I would doubt a modest hike in National Insurance could be the cause of their proposed reduction of staff and services.