A hospice has said it is being impacted by the national "funding crisis" and is asking for public support. St Catherine’s Hospice is located in Crawley and supplies care at home across West Sussex . In a letter, chief executive Giles Tomsett has revealed that the hospice may be forced to make changes to the service.
Mr Tomsett said according to projections, fundraising and retail income will not be sufficient to facilitate rising costs and “tough decisions” have to be made. He said: “I came to this role at St Catherine’s 10 years ago after my best friend had received our care – dying at just 44 and since then, several of my other friends have received care and support from hospices , each dying before they were 55. READ MORE: Haywards Heath hospital emergency team up for awards “Like many of you, I know up close and personal the value of the quality care our wonderful teams provide.
I see our team’s effort and drive every day and I know of it from feedback I receive from dying people and their families. “Currently, around 28 per cent of our funding comes from the NHS. Over the 10 years I’ve been in post, this funding has remained static despite rising costs.
“This means our statutory funding covers less of our costs than it did previously – whilst almost all of our costs are increasing. “We are committed to running the same level of inpatient services on our wards and won’t be reducing this, continuing to operate the 12 beds currently open on our M.