Chris Green MP: ​Amazing work of hospice movement

​We have had yet another difficult year as a country and next year looks set to be equally tough.

War has flared up in the Middle East to join that in Ukraine so we look across the world as an increasingly troubled place where problems are building up for so many.

One of the areas of British national life that we can be proud of is our commitment to the hospice movement.

Much of the funding that our hospices receive is of donations from well-wishers or from those families who have had or are having ongoing support for a loved one.

When I visited the Wigan and Leigh Hospice, in Hindley, I heard of the amazing work that they do and how all the members of staff and the wider team create such a warm and friendly environment.

Covid-19 and the lockdowns created huge problems for the hospice in delivering care but there are ongoing challenges with funding.

As so many know, Wigan and Leigh Hospice do so much for so many but people often do not appreciate that about half their income is from the kindness of those giving from their own pocket whilst the other half is from the local authority and NHS.

There are benefits from having a mixed source of funding but, with so much financial pressure bearing down on public services, they are struggling to commit to supporting hospices as they normally would.

This is a point I made to the Health Secretary at a recent Health Select Committee meeting.

Having raised the situation of the funding of hospices with her predecessor, I took the opportunity to raise it with the new incumbent, Victoria Atkins MP.

In fact, I took up a number of different concerns that I have with the new Integrated Care System that is now responsible for delivering services from dentistry to GP surgeries and high street chemists.

This aspect of devolution was only introduced in July last year and has had little time to bed in but my constituents tell me that they need to see improvements immediately.

Speaking of devolution, it looks like the clean air charging zone that was going to be imposed upon many across the Greater Manchester administrative area has now been scrapped.

We were all told that it was a legal requirement for buses, vans and lorries to either be replaced, at great cost, or face another Greater Manchester tax.

After huge political pressure from local MPs and concerned citizens, the Greater Manchester leadership have now conceded that it is and was a bad idea and was never needed.

Millions of pounds was spent by the local authorities just so that they can impose yet another tax. Unsurprisingly, they want to keep the cameras in place which confirms my suspicion that they will look for more ways to use them to tax you in the future.