To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices.
This answer is the replacement for a previous holding answer.
Answered on
23 January 2025
Palliative and end of life care is commissioned at a local level by integrated care boards (ICBs). Consequently, neither the Department nor NHS England hold data centrally on which hospices have all medication supplied for free or at a discounted rate by the National Health Service or which hospices do not have medication supplied by the NHS.
There are no plans currently to make an assessment of the potential merits of requiring the NHS to pay for all medications supplied to hospices, because medication supply to charitable hospices is dependent on local arrangements with ICBs. Hospices are advised to reach individual agreements with their ICBs, which have a broader picture of local arrangements on medication prescribing and provision within their areas.