§ Lord Fearnasked Her Majesty's Government:
How much funding has been used to date from that recently allocated to hospices in England and Wales. [HL4769]
58WA
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Hunt of Kings Heath)The Government have pledged in the NHS Cancer Plan that funding for specialist palliative care services in England, including hospices, will increase by £50 million per annum by 2004. This investment is included in the overall National Health Service investment for implementing the Cancer Plan. How the £50 million is deployed locally will depend on the needs of the area. Cancer networks have drawn up service delivery plans on palliative care to review the level of services offered in their area and these will ensure that each network has a range of palliative care services available. We are currently reviewing the outturn position for 2001–02 and the progress in that year.