Mr Robertson, MP for Lichfield, Burntwood and the Villages, visited St Giles Hospital in Whittington this week to discuss the financial pressures he is currently facing.

Last week, St Giles announced it would focus on its core specialist palliative care services, reducing its inpatient capacity from 23 to 15 beds and making 21 staff – 15 clinical roles and six non-clinical roles – redundant. in the context of a growing national palliative care funding crisis.

St Giles is based just outside the area represented by Mr Robertson, but serves many of his constituents. The hospice has an annual budget of £10 million, of which only 18% is funded by the government.

While recent changes have reduced the annual deficit, the hospice now faces new financial pressures from increased employer National Insurance contributions announced in the Budget and potential increases in NHS pay, which would add additional costs. hundreds of thousands of dollars to its salary costs.

Speaking after his visit to the hospice, Mr Robertson said: “I would like to thank St Giles Hospice for the invitation to see the vital work they are doing for Lichfield, Burntwood and the surrounding areas.

“No visitor can fail to see the compassion and care that every volunteer and staff member brings and provides. For decades, palliative care and the work it does has been undervalued and underfunded.

“It’s high time for this to change and I look forward to being part of the campaign to make palliative care funding sustainable in the 21st century,”

“Last week, Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, confirmed that a decision on support for hospices would be made before Christmas.” he added.

Elinor Eustace, Acting CEO of St Giles Hospice, welcomed the MP’s support: “We are grateful for Mr Robertson’s commitment to championing sustainable funding for palliative care. The visit provided an important opportunity to discuss our current financial challenges and the difficult decisions we have made. We had to do to preserve the future of our services. Having recently had to make significant changes, including reducing our bed capacity and making staff redundancies, immediate support would help us protect our progress and manage future challenges, including rising costs of National Insurance estimated at around £200,000.

She added: “We look forward to continuing our conversations with Dave about how the Government can help support sustainable funding for palliative care. The palliative care sector as a whole is facing significant financial challenges nationally, with UK palliative care facing a collective funding gap of £77 million. We continue to work alongside Hospice UK and other hospices to advocate for sustainable funding solutions. »