A CHARITY chairman from St Mary Bourne will meet with the Prime Minister to talk about funding for children’s hospices across the UK.

Professor Khalid Aziz, chairman of Naomi House children’s hospice, based in Sutton Scotney, will travel to the House of Commons for the meeting on Wednesday. (13)

The meeting was agreed during a session of Prime Minister’s Questions last December (2012), following a question from Salisbury MP John Glen asking David Cameron what more could be done to support children’s hospices and address the disparity in funding between children’s hospices and hospices caring for adults.

Responding to the question, Mr Cameron agreed that more needed to be done to ensure funding for children’s hospices was fair and equitable, and offered to meet with Mr Glen and Prof Aziz to discuss the matter further. They will be joined by the MP for Winchester, Steve Brine.

Prof Aziz said: "For too long children's hospices have been the Cinderellas when it comes to Government funding.

“It has been a hit and miss affair with some health authorities such as Dorset and Wiltshire being most helpful and offering a simple, workable funding formula which has stood the test of time.

“We are hoping that, thanks to the support of our MPs, in particular John Glen and Steve Brine, this face to face meeting with the Prime Minister will mean we can repeat the formula across the rest of the health service not just for Naomi House but for the 41 other children's hospices too, putting them on a par with adult hospices."

Naomi House currently receives less than 10 per cent of the £7million needed to run the hospice annually from the public purse.

The remaining money is made up by fundraising efforts across the seven counties the charity serves.