A Plaid Cymru MS has called on the Labour Government to increase funding for children’s hospices.
Peredur Owen Griffiths, who is an MS for the South Wales East region, said it was time to ensure that paediatric palliative care was not so reliant on generating its own income.
Two children’s hospices in Wales - Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith - receive less than 10% of their annual funding from the Welsh Government. In comparison, children’s hospices in England receive 21% of their funding from the UK Government and children’s hospices in Northern Ireland and Scotland runs at 25% and 50% respectively.
In questions to the Health Minister, Mr Owen Griffiths said: “My question is in two parts. Can the Welsh Government outline how much of the £8.4 million invested into the end-of-life care sector each year in Wales goes towards paediatric palliative care services?
“Secondly, Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith receive less than 10 per cent of their funding from the Welsh Government. This is a significantly lower proportion than children's hospices in England and Scotland receive from their respective Governments.
“Can this Government therefore commit to increasing state funding for Wales's two children's hospices in the long term, and to meeting with Tŷ Hafan and Tŷ Gobaith to ensure their needs are considered in the upcoming funding review for hospices?”
During the session, Health Minister Eluned Morgan acknowledged that her government needed “to do better” on paediatric palliative care and that a review of the current arrangements would be published in the autumn.
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