Councillors have agreed to write to NHS chiefs over what they described as the “scandalous” state of governance of end-of-life care in York and North Yorkshire.
Members of North Yorkshire Council’s scrutiny of health committee took the decision after hearing that hospices were facing staff cuts and potential bed losses because of funding pressures.
Tony Collins, chief executive of Herriot Hospice Homecare, Just ‘B’ and Saint Michael’s Hospice, told the meeting that although NHS Humber and North Yorkshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) had allocated an additional £750,000 for hospice care, very little had gone to hospices in York and North Yorkshire.
He criticised the use of what he described as a “crude” population-based formula to distribute the money rather than an assessment of need.
The meeting heard that rising demand and inadequate NHS funding had left services financially “unsustainable”, with hospice charities needing to raise £7.2m a year just to maintain 48 inpatient beds.
Asked what the committee could do to help, Mr Collins said: “Across the ICB footprint, they found £750,000, having spent two or three years telling us there was no money to find.
“I think that came about through the pressure applied by hospices, which have been very persistent in raising this issue with the general public, MPs and others.
“But it also came through pressure from yourselves.”
The committee also heard from Emma Johnson, chief executive of St Leonard’s Hospice in York, who said progress on plans for an ICB Centre of Excellence to oversee palliative and end-of-life care had “stopped”.
She said: “The governance structures that we’ve had in place across York and North Yorkshire around palliative and end-of-life care have gone as part of the ICB restructure.
“We had a transformation lead for the ICB who was leading that work, but that post has been taken out as part of the restructure.”
Ms Johnson said hospices had offered to fund 50 per cent of the officer’s salary, but the proposal was rejected by the ICB.
She added: “As we stand today, there has been no strategic board for palliative and end-of-life care, there has been no clinical network, and the locality meetings have all been stopped as well.
“We’ve had nothing in six months.”
Councillor Peter Lacey described the situation as “scandalous”.
He said: “We should be writing to the chief executive of the ICB, asking why these things have stopped and been paused. It’s just not good enough.
“The second thing is that I think this committee could be well informed by asking our own public health team to give us a health needs assessment for end-of-life care across the county.”
Committee chair Andrew Lee backed the proposal.
He said: “I’m prepared to write a very robust letter to the chief executive of the ICB criticising the current situation.”
Several councillors also criticised ICB representatives, who had attended the meeting earlier at County Hall in Northallerton, for not remaining to discuss hospice care.
However, the Local Democracy Reporting Service understands the NHS officers had notified the council in advance that they needed to leave early to attend another meeting.
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