Petition over hospice cuts taken to government

Val Barrett said staff and volunteers at the Arthur Rank Hospice were "so kind and dedicated" and "really cared"

A woman whose husband spent his final days in a hospice now facing a cut in funding has joined protesters opposed to the "cruel decision".

Families and MPs campaigning for nine inpatient beds to be saved at the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge handed the government their petition, which has gained more than 15,000 signatures, on Monday.

Val Barrett joined them at Downing Street, and said: "It is such a cruel decision. I will never forget what they have done for Rob in this hospice."

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust said it was removing the funding as the beds were "poor value for money", and a dedicated hospice space would be built at its Addenbrooke's Hospital.

The funding cuts, announced last month, amount to £829,000 a year and would see the hospice's inpatient unit bed capacity decrease from 21 to 12.

Arthur Rank stated the funding would mean "over 200 people a year will no longer have the option of being cared for in the comfort of out hospice and instead will sadly be dying in a busy hospital".

Ms Barrett, 82, said her husband died on 20 October from a brain tumour and spent six weeks at home under the Arthur Rank home hospice before being moved to the hospice for four weeks.

"It was such a calming place for him to be, they really cared," she said.

"I spent the last three nights in there with him and they found me a room, a bed and brought Rob's bed in to this ward."

Upon the news of the funding cuts, she said she was "horrified".

"Nine beds they are talking about cutting - it is just unbelievable. It is such a cruel decision," she said.

"They were so kind and dedicated, they are not just a number in there. These people really cared."

Dr Rick Nelms said the hospice had enabled him to keep going even at times when it felt "impossible"

Eighteen months ago, Dr Rick Nelms, 67, was given six months to live.

Diagnosed with a rare form of motor neurone disease, he said the hospice had been both life-changing and life-enabling.

"We are trying to do something about something bad, that is happening to something good," he said.

"It's allowed me to keep going when otherwise I think it would have been impossible."

Sue Nelms said the hospice not only helped people physically but helped with all the practicalities so they could "get to the point where they can live their death well".

She said: "What you get when you walk through the door, it's almost like a hub.

"It's very loving and the hardest time you ever walk through the door is the first time, yet they greet you and they take you and the fear goes. It's an amazing place."

Cheney Payne, Ian Sollom, Pippa Heylings and Charlotte Cane helped present the petition to the government

Pippa Heylings, Liberal Democrat MP for South Cambridgeshire, helped start the petition.

She said: "We want the prime minister to know we have to make sure the funding for the Arthur Rank hospice is restored.

"Everybody deserves access to the excellent care they provide to the very end of their days.

"It's about our loves ones and those very, very, final dying days. It has touched something so deep in so many people."

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson previously said it had made the "biggest investment in a generation - £100m – to improve hospice facilities".