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Covid-19: Charity cuts could put the NHS under even more pressure

BMJ 2020; 370 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m3261 (Published 21 August 2020) Cite this as: BMJ 2020;370:m3261

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  1. Elisabeth Mahase
  1. The BMJ
  1. emahase{at}bmj.com

As the UK’s third sector faces a major funding crisis due to the pandemic, essential patient services—from social prescribing to end of life care—could face cuts or closure. The whole of the NHS will feel the impact, reports Elisabeth Mahase

“This year alone we think our fundraising income is going to fall by nearly one third, leaving a gap of £33m [€36.6m; $43.2m] in our finances,” says Sarah Wells, consultant in palliative care and medical director at the Marie Curie Hospice in the West Midlands. “Any reduction in our service is going to have a direct knock-on effect on our partners in the NHS, which will have to pick up any unmet need now and growing demand in the future.

“That is a huge concern.”

This is the situation facing many UK charities today. Unable to fundraise as they did before the pandemic, forced to cancel already planned events, and still trying to provide support to their communities, many are having to decide what they can still afford to do, not just in the coming months but in the years ahead.

A survey of UK charities—carried out by the Institute of Fundraising, the Charity Finance Group, and the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and published in June—found that the sector expected a £12.4bn loss of income this year because of the pandemic.1

Caron Bradshaw, chief executive of the Charity Finance Group, says, “Charities are telling us that they are planning for a substantial decline to their incomes for the year ahead, at a time when the need for their services has never been more acute.

“From providing food to the most disadvantaged in our society, to supporting people through cancer, if charities are not there to meet the need someone will have to pick up that work, or that …

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