Ahead of the Welsh Conservative debate today (March 24), Mark Isherwood MS – Chair of the Cross Party Group on Hospices and Palliative Care, and Shadow Minister for North Wales – said:
“Hospice care, especially for children, is of course a sensitive and emotive subject at all times, but the pandemic and lockdowns, now past its first anniversary, have made a difficult subject an essential one to debate.
“Late last year, children’s hospice charities in Wales, Tŷ Hafan & Tŷ Gobaith, jointly published Family Voices, a powerful report that gave voice to the most important concerns of families who have children with life-limiting conditions. They called the children’s hospices in Wales “our lifeline” and said they urgently needed more of the care that only the hospices could provide, especially in relation to respite.
“Wales needs, as the report detailed, a move towards a sustainable model of funding that is more aligned with children’s hospice charities in other UK nations. This funding would give the children’s hospices in Wales confidence to sustain and expand their services to better meet the needs of all children with life limiting conditions and their families across the country, in turn helping address Wales’ ambition to be a ‘compassionate country’.”
