Hospice announces cuts as reserves 'critically low'

Ashgate Hospice provides end-of-life care to people over the age of 18

A hospice in Derbyshire that is facing "rising costs" has announced plans to make cuts in a bid to save more than £2.6m.

Ashgate Hospice, in Chesterfield, said on Tuesday it had put 52 roles at risk of redundancy and warned it would have to "scale back" services.

The end-of-life care service, which employs 378 people, cited inflation, rising energy bills, and staff salaries as contributors to rising running costs.

Barbara-Anne Walker, the hospice's chief executive, said the cuts were "heartbreaking choices, but necessary to protect Ashgate's future".

The hospice provides palliative care services to about 2,600 patients each year.

But under the cost-cutting proposals, the hospice would see 600 fewer patients annually, Ms Walker said.

She said the hospice was currently running at a cost of £18.5m a year, with cash reserves "critically low".

It had already cut its 21 available beds to 15 due to insufficient funding, and had proposed to reduce these further to six.

Barbara-Anne Walker, the hospice's CEO, believes the service is "unfairly" funded

Ms Walker said while costs had increased, local NHS contribution to the charity had remained "unfairly low".

She added: "We have been speaking to the local NHS for months now to prevent this happening - including highlighting how specialist end-of-life care is fully funded by the NHS in south Derbyshire, while here in the north we have to ask the local community to make up a huge shortfall."

Ms Walker added despite £10m being raised in 2024-25, it was still "not enough".

She has called for an end to what she described as a "north-south divide" in the county.

The BBC understands there is no hospice or non-NHS service that provides specific inpatient beds to care for people overnight in south Derbyshire.

Any inpatient palliative care in the south of the county is within the Royal Derby Hospital.

However, there are non-NHS services that provide other end-of-life care, such as in patients' homes.

The NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) said it was sorry to learn of Ashgate Hospice's proposals.

The ICB added it believed its level of funding was fair "when compared with benchmarks for the hospice sector nationally" and was in line with NHS England guidance.

'Not sustainable'

But Ms Walker said she believed the lack of funding for the hospice and incoming cuts would lead to further pressure on local hospitals in the north of the county.

The charity has launched a campaign called Act Now for Ashgate, calling for the public's support.

"We've been clear for some time that the current system of hospice funding is not sustainable," Ms Walker said.

"And like so many other hospices, we are facing a financial crisis that puts at risk the very services we have fought so hard to build and maintain."

The charity said staff cuts would impact various teams across the service, including therapy and counselling, as well as marketing, communications and HR teams.

However, no immediate changes will be made to patient care while a 30-day consultation is under way.

Amanda Sullivan, chief executive of the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB, said: "Our core contract value with Ashgate Hospice has increased in value by 55% since 2022-23.

"The request for a multi-million pound increase in funding during this financial year is especially difficult and at a time when the whole health system is under extreme financial pressure, and when no additional services would be provided.

"We have been working with the Ashgate team over several months to understand why their costs have risen so significantly this financial year.

"We have offered to support Ashgate in reviewing the way care is provided for the north Derbyshire community, working in partnership with health, social care and the voluntary sector.

"We will now work with Ashgate and the rest of the health and care system to mitigate the impact of these proposals."