HAMPSHIRE children’s hospice chairman Khalid Aziz has expressed delight at support from the prime minister for improved funding.

Prof Aziz, chairman of Naomi House, today met the Prime Minister to discuss funding for children’s hospices across the UK, and was delighted with Mr. Cameron's response.

He was seeking a unified national model for children's hospice funding in the UK and to put it on a par with adult hospices.

Mr Cameron said today (WED): “I totally get this. I will write to the healthcare commission and suggest they take up this model immediately. I see no reason to delay.”

Prof Aziz said: “Naturally, I am delighted with the outcome of this meeting. We couldn't have asked for more. For well over 10 years now, we have been asking visiting MPs who've come to Naomi House and jacksplace to help us with this. They all try to help, but John Glen (Salisbury MP) successfully asked the question of the Prime Minister one month ago and thankfully David Cameron said yes. We are very pleased indeed.
“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. This really ought to be regularised, after all children are every bit as important as adults.”
The meeting took place in the House of Commons following the Prime Minister’s weekly session in PMQ’s.
Steve Brine, MP for Winchester and Chandler’s Ford, who attended the meeting, said: “The PM has said many times he wants to put in place a per-patient funding system that would be for all hospices. This meeting was all about telling him such a system exists and is, in-part at least, working for Naomi House right now.
“Our aim was to get that across and encourage David Cameron to cut and paste this simple formula, via the new National Commissioning Board, across England so we can finally resolve children’s hospice funding in a reasonable and sustainable way.”
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.