THE Prime Minister has agreed to pursue hospice funding improvements for children following a meeting with the chairman of Naomi House.
David Cameron, who met with Professor Khalid Aziz yesterday (Wednesday), said he saw no reason to delay bringing in the proposed unified national model for children’s hospice funding and would write to the healthcare commission suggesting they take it up immediately.
Prof Aziz has long campaigned to put public funding of children's hospices on a par with their counterparts in the adult hospice network.
Naomi House currently receives less than 10 per cent of the £7million needed to run the hospice annually from the public purse. The average public income received by adult hospices equates to 38 per cent.
After the meeting, also attended by Salisbury MP John Glen and Winchester MP Steve Brine, Prof Aziz said: “It was very positive indeed, we couldn’t have asked for more.
"The primary care trusts in Wiltshire and Dorset have had an arrangement with us for a couple of years now where we get paid a certain amount of money for every young person we take from their particular area. What we really want is for that to be rolled out across all PCTs.
“It now looks like we have unblocked the bureaucratic red tape.”
Mr Cameron, who had pledged to meet Prof Aziz following a question raised in parliament by Mr Glen, praised the efforts of volunteers and staff at Naomi House.
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