§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what further staffing support he plans to provide to hospices. [2481]
§ Yvette CooperThe NHS Cancer Plan set out our commitment to increase National Health Service investment in specialist palliative care by £50 million by 2004 to ensure that the inequalities in access to specialist palliative care ends. Health authority allocations in 2001–02 included a total of £255 million to support the first year of local implementation of the NHS Cancer Plan. Priorities for this year include the development of costed strategic plans for palliative c are. Cancer networks are expected to demonstrate how the additional funding will be invested over the next three years.
Cancer networks are currently developing detailed service delivery plans, which will identify the current position, future demands and gaps in services and set out action plans for further development across all areas, including staffing of teams, whether in the voluntary sector or in the NHS. We are funding the National Council for Hospices and specialist palliative care services to support cancer networks to ensure an inclusive approach to develop the palliative care element in the service delivery plans.