Hospice issues urgent call for more funds after crisis recognition by government.

St Luke’s Hospice, Kenton Road, is calling for long-term financial support despite the UK governments pledge to offer hospices £25 million in funding to avert a crisis in end of life care.

Alpana Malde, the chief executive of St Luke’s Hospice, said in an ITV News interview last week that the government’s acknowledgement of a crisis and the financial support is positive, but the government need to “sit up and take notice” as the funding won’t make a long-term difference to the hospice.

Commenting on St Luke’s Hospice’s situation, Ms Malde said: “We are currently in the process of formulating a plan to reduce our expenditure, which will mean cuts and that will mean less care provided to people at the end of their lives.”

The hospice aims to reduce annual costs of their in-patient unit, day care and outpatient services from £5.2 million to £4.8 million by the end of 2019.

Only a third of the costs are covered by the NHS, with the remainder coming from grants and donations from people in Harrow and Brent.

Leela, a terminally ill patient with motor neurone disease at St Luke’s Hospice, is among the many patients suffering from the reduced day services.

The patient said: “The acupuncture I was receiving every couple of weeks really helped my joints; I am now on a waiting list for further treatment services. I do miss it.”

In May, a survey with ITV news and Hospice UK found one in three hospices are forced to cut services.