Speeches by Hamilton.

“I am going to hand back now. I do not want you to answer, but I am going to leave you with this: Toby from the last panel said that by April many organisations will go under—they have not got years. As members of the Committee are asking their questions, you need to answer that point.”

“Finally, my biggest thing is about data. How do you find out where that deficit is so that we can then do what needs to be done? What has NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care got planned to ensure that hospice care is not seen as the second cousin once removed, but as an expert, first-class service …”

“I was just going to butt in, but I will give you a few more seconds.”

“You and I know each other well, so I am just going to stop you right there: how will we do that?”

“Good afternoon, one and all. Samantha—if you do not mind me calling you that—I will direct my question, which is a simple one, at you. With the 10-year plan and the left shift that we have talked about, we know that things are moving more and more into the community. For palliative care, that means that we will get lar…”

“That is a good place to stop. I will hand back to the Chair. Thank you.”

“I am going to move straight to Baroness Finlay for the last word, because I have to hand back.”

“I wonder if Fliss would like to come in, because I have to hand back to the Chair. Say you had three Government Ministers sat here, what message would you give them, so that we can really see strategic commissioning?”

“May I just make a follow-on point? I know we have to move on. For me, the big issue—and I have a thing about this—is data. We are struggling to get the data from hospices. I do not mind who answers this question, but what would you like the Government to do to increase their data collection to enable us to get proper s…”

“Thank you. Before I start, I should declare my interests: I was a nurse, until I gave up my registry last year, and I worked in the palliative care field at points in my life. Also, up until November, I was joint chair of the APPG on hospice and end-of-life care. Let me start by saying good afternoon to all three witne…”

“That is a really good point for me to move on to my next point around hospices. Let me start by saying that the £25 million that has been announced is fantastic, fantastic, fantastic. How did you get to that sum of money at this point?”

“Good morning, Minister Kinnock. I will be talking about rural palliative and hospice care. My first question follows on from what Danny has been talking about: diversity. When you look at people who live in rural areas, the research shows that they struggle to get any form of palliative care. They have further problems…”

“Considering you have just talked about data, how did you get to that?”

“My final point, before I hand back to the Chair, is about staffing. Staffing is a major issue within hospices. Capital funding is not normally used towards staffing, so how are you supporting hospices to ensure that they are not still losing staff? The money that you are giving them absolutely cannot be used towards st…”

“What are the Government doing to get everyone to that point? I am concerned that by leaving it all on ICBs, you are setting yourselves up to fail—I will be honest with you—because of the issues currently within ICBs, with some of the major cuts that they have to do, and the fact that you are joining up a number of them…”

“In areas with very expensive properties, the hospices are able to survive, but in other areas, where we are not getting all that charitable funding, these organisations will continue to struggle, even with the MSF that is coming on board.”

“I am going to stop you. We know how they are funded. My issue is not with how they are funded; my issue is that we are giving money to hospices—which I absolutely support—but what work is being done under that to say where that money is going, what it is for, and how as a Government we ensure, even with the MSF going f…”

“I am.”

“I beg to differ, if you don’t mind. Having given that sum of money to hospices, how as a Government are we ensuring that it is being distributed in a way that is needs-led, because it is data driven? At the moment, I cannot see how that is being done.”

“Going back to NHSE, and the new department that is going to be set up, do you not think that hospices—especially given that, in your vision, you want them to remain in the charity sector—will have a role relating to data, as well as ICBs?”