Pembrokeshire's Assembly Members have joined forces to call for better funding of the County's hospice service. The Welsh Conservatives put palliative care at the top of the agenda last week when they devoted a debate in the Senedd to the subject.
"Even the Welsh Assembly Government's own report has labelled hospice funding in Wales as "patchy"," said South Pembrokeshire's AM Angela Burns.
She highlighted the fact that polls show 78 per cent of people believe the Government should provide at least half the cost of palliative care.
"Yet in reality, Welsh hospices only received 21 per cent of their funding last year from the Government," said Mrs Burns.
"The figure for children's hospice funding is even lower at 12 per cent." Preseli Pembrokeshire's AM Paul Davies added:
"The Paul Sartori Hospice at Home charity does a wonderful job in the county but it shouldn't have to rely so heavily on fundraising to pay for its basic needs."
The work done by the Pembrokeshire hospice was lauded by the Shadow Welsh Health Minister Andrew RT Davies who said:
"I witnessed the excellent work that the Paul Sartori Foundation undertakes.
"To continue its excellent work, it will rely on and require a significant increase in core funding from the service commissioner, namely the NHS. Sadly, that is not forthcoming." Paul Davies added:
"In England the Department for Health has committed to aim to provide 50 per cent of core funding for hospices which is a figure that palliative care providers in Wales can only dream about."
"The problem for many hospices is that funding is given out sporadically, meaning that care providers find it hard to develop long‐term plans," he added.
"The Welsh Conservatives believe that palliative care is being short‐changed in Wales," said Mrs Burns. "Only £8 million in funding over the next three years has been committed and we would like to see a much more generous long‐term funding target set."
