Hospice Alliance NI welcomes new recommendations to improve palliative care provision

Hospice Alliance NI, the group representing hospice care providers across Northern Ireland, has responded to the Northern Ireland Assembly Report on Access to Palliative Care Services, welcoming the Committee for Health’s 27-point recommendation list to reform palliative and end-of-life care provision.

The alliance – which is made up of Evora Hospice, Foyle Hospice, Marie Curie, and the Northern Ireland Hospice & Children’s Hospice – now calls upon the Minister of Health to move decisively to implement the committee’s recommendations in full.

An immediate increase in funding to 50% of the actual cost of care, rising to 100% within five years, is among the recommendations set out by the committee, which the alliance says is an essential step toward safeguarding hospice services for patients with complex needs.

Commenting on the report, the alliance said: “We would like to thank the committee for their time and effort as well as all those stakeholders who contributed to this inquiry. Your input has led to the publication of what we believe to be a landmark report and a line in the sand for the future of hospice care.

“We stand united and ready to work. Palliative and end-of-life care is a right, not a privilege, and this report highlights long-standing gaps in provision. The funding model must be significantly improved to ensure equitable access to care when children and adults need it most. Our hospices are not simply providers, but an essential part of the healthcare system – and local communities – and they have long delivered enormous value for money through their impact.

“We now need to work together to progress these recommendations, at pace, to ensure the vital role of hospice care in our health system is supported through a sustainable funding model and a supported workforce.”

In 2024-25, hospices in Northern Ireland provided palliative and end-of-life care to 12,000 people and direct support services to 1,700 family members, friends, and carers. This included almost 80,000 visits made to patients at home by specialist palliative care nurses and doctors as well as generalist healthcare staff, some 14,000 outpatient appointments, and 19,000 days and nights of in-patient care.

Responding to the Report on Access to Palliative Care, Donall Henderson, Chief Executive of Foyle Hospice, said: “Foyle Hospice welcomes the Health Committee’s report and its recognition of the crucial role hospices play.

"In Western Health and Social Care Trust area, and more widely across the North West, Foyle Hospice has supported over 23,000 patients and families since 1985, providing expert palliative care in our nine-bed in-patient unit, in people’s homes and through specialist bereavement support for both children and adults.

"We see the impact every day, but we also know it cannot be sustained with short-term, non-recurrent funding. Fair and realistic support is now essential if people in this region are to keep relying on hospices to provide dignified care to patients and their families when it matters most.”

Paula Heneghan, Associate Director of Services at Marie Curie NI, said: “Too many people spend their last weeks of life in hospitals, where many don’t need or want to be. This puts additional strain on a health service which is already witnessing a tsunami of need and, across the UK, costs billions of pounds to fund. Shifting health expenditure on people at the end of life from hospital to community settings would ease the burden on the NHS and deliver better outcomes for patients.

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"If the department were to embrace the recommendations in today’s report, the hospice sector would be better supported to deliver its high quality, expert care to more people in Northern Ireland and provide additional value to the Health and Social Care system in the process.”

Trevor McCartney, CEO of Northern Ireland Hospice and Children’s Hospice, said: “If the Health Committee’s recommendations were enacted, it would be transformative for hospices like ours. Instead of focusing all our energy on simply keeping the lights on, we could look to sustain and develop our services and support many more people in need. It would allow us to become an integral part of the healthcare system, delivering compassionate, specialist care where it’s needed most.

“I particularly welcome the committee’s recommendation to invest in children’s services. We operate Northern Ireland’s only Children’s Hospice, yet we receive only 30% funding, leaving a £700k annual shortfall.  This is a position that is simply not sustainable, despite massive community support through fundraising. We have capacity for 10 beds, but funding means we can operate only six, limiting families to just six nights of respite a year when best practice shows they should receive at least twelve.”

The alliance now calls upon policymakers to act now to deliver reform to address disparities and ensure equitable access to palliative care so that no one is left behind.