Agenda item

8.1

The Committee considered a report of Peter Hartland, Chief Executive, St Luke’s Hospice, on the nature of hospice care in Sheffield. The report contained details on how such care was funded in terms of the charitable/donation-based nature of funding, and how the situation in Sheffield compared with the picture nationally.

8.2

In attendance for this item were Peter Hartland, Chief Executive, Judith Park, Deputy Chief Executive, and Mark Harrington, Risk Management Co-ordinator, St Luke’s Hospice, and Jackie Gladden, Senior Commissioning Manager, Long-Term Conditions and End of Life Care, Sheffield Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

8.3

Jackie Gladden stated that the CCG valued the Hospice, both in terms of the provision of end of life care and, as a partner in the future development of these services in Sheffield.  As well as providing an element of funding for the Hospice, the CCG also funded a number of other services, including the Home Care Nursing Service, Continuing Health Care Service and the Macmillan Unit at Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, which provided 18 specialist palliative care beds in out-patient services.  She added that the CCG would be meeting with the Hospice next week, to discuss its contract for the forthcoming financial year.

8.4

Members of the Committee raised questions and the following responses were provided:-

·                     Whereas the main hospitals in Sheffield were funded 100% by the NHS, the Hospice received less than a third of the £7.5 million funding required annually. 

·                     Jackie Gladden offered to attend a future meeting of the Committee to talk to Members on the future of end of life care in the City.

·                     The CCG was not in a position to provide funding over and above the level it currently provided to the Hospice and, in terms of contingency, there was no legal requirement on the CCG to make up any shortfall suffered by the Hospice.  The CCG did, however, have a responsibility to ensure care for all patients at the end of life, and should the Hospice not be able to provide its current service, the CCG would have to review the position, which would potentially mean that more patients would be cared for in hospital.

·                     The Hospice was generally ineligible for major National Lottery funding, mainly due to its physical location in a more prosperous area of the City. 

·                     The term of the Hospice’s contact with the CCG has historically been one year, but Peter Hartland stated that the CCG was to looking into the possibility of extending the next contract for a two year period.

8.5

RESOLVED: That the Committee:-

(a)       notes the contents of the report now submitted, together with the responses to the questions raised; and

(b)       requests that:-

(i)            Jackie Gladden feeds back to (i) colleagues in the Clinical Commissioning Group, that the Committee strongly urges the CCG to consider longer-term contracting arrangements with the Hospice on the basis that the present one-year arrangement is not acceptable in terms of the Hospice’s ability to plan its future finances and (ii) the Committee, following the contract negotiations between the Hospice and the CCG in late January, 2014;

(ii)          arrangements be made for the Committee to look at the End of Life Care Strategy in the 2014/15 Municipal Year, and that this item includes feedback on the Department of Health’s response to the report on the Liverpool care Pathway and any consequent actions in Sheffield; and

(iii)         the CCG should consider a contingency plan for the services provided by the Hospice should there be a substantial funding shortfall, which may include the availability of emergency short-term contingency funding to sustain services at the Hospice, if appropriate.