§ Mr. HoyleTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to increase funds to hospices(a) in the UK and (b) in Lancashire. [79577]
§ Ms BlearsThe NHS Cancer Plan, published in September 2000, pledged that the National Health Service contribution to the costs of specialist palliative care (including hospices) would increase by £50 million by 2004.
Progress to date has been slow. We have therefore asked Professor Mike Richards, the National Cancer Director, to work with the NHS and the voluntary sector to develop proposals for a new approach to specialist palliative care funding that will ensure delivery of the £50 million increase and develop a mechanism to secure long term investment. Professor Richards has been asked to report to Ministers later this Autumn.
To support this initiative, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health announced on 2 October that we are making available an extra £10 million for specialist palliative care services in 2002–03. It will be for local health communities, with their voluntary sector partners, to decide how this funding should be deployed in support of the Cancer Plan objectives.
Funding for specialist palliative care services in Scotland and Wales is the responsibility of the devolved administrations, and whilst the institutions in Northern Ireland are dissolved, responsibility rests with Ministers in the Northern Ireland Office.