Hospice boss devastated by £800k fund reduction

Sharon Allen said the end of the funding had "truly devastated" the charity

The removal of £800,000 in NHS funding a year for end-of-life care "has truly devastated us all", a hospice boss has said.

The money enabled people to be treated in their final days at Arthur Rank Hospice instead of at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.

Nine inpatient beds will have to close at the Cambridge-based hospice, which has been given six months' notice of the change.

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that following "a value for money assessment" it had taken this "very difficult decision".

Sharon Allen, chief executive of Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, said: "This now means that over 200 people a year will no longer have the option of being cared for in the comfort of our hospice and instead will sadly be dying in a busy hospital without the level of privacy for lasting memories, nor the expertise and outstanding care provided by our experienced, compassionate palliative care nurses.

"The removal of this funding has truly devastated us all."

The cuts amount to £829,000 a year and will reduce the hospice's inpatient unit bed capacity from 21 to 12.

"Although we sympathise with the financial pressures that [the hospital] and indeed the whole NHS are under, the ending of this service will, without doubt, have huge implications for our local community," said Ms Allen.

Hannah Reynolds, 26, said the hospice offered invaluable support when her partner Dan was admitted there in January.

He had been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and spent three weeks at Addenbrooke's before moving to Arthur Rank.

"Looking back it is such a traumatic time," Ms Reynolds said of when he got the diagnosis.

"Things move very quickly - at first they thought he only had a few days to live but he bounced back."

She said the hospital ward was busy and it made an "incredible" difference to be moved to the hospice, where he died three weeks later.

"The atmosphere was calm, he had his own room and it was so much nicer for him and he was more comfortable here," she said.

"He trusted the nurses here immensely.

"It's comforting to know that he was happier here for peace of mind."

'High quality care'

In March, the hospital trust which runs Addenbrooke's announced the axing of hundreds of non-clinical jobs because it had been told to cut "the cost of our support functions to April 2022 levels".

Funding for the remaining inpatient beds will continue to be provided by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Integrated Care System, which has also been approached for comment.

Ms Allen said the beds were "still very much needed by our community".

A hospital spokesperson said the trust began purchasing the "excellent" and "very high quality" end-of-life care from Arthur Rank in 2017.

"On average, we have been able to access around six beds at Arthur Rank Hospice which has helped to alleviate inpatient bed pressures within the wider trust and has provided a better experience for those patients who were able to transfer to the hospice," they said.

"At the start of this financial year, in order to maintain core services within a reduced budget, we undertook an affordability and value for money assessment of these additional beds."

It will stop purchasing the beds from April. The charity has launched a fundraising campaign.

Arthur Rank provides care and support to more than 3,800 patients a year at the Cambridge hospice, the Alan Hudson Centre in Wisbech and in patients' own homes.

It said it costs £14m a year to run, its contracted NHS services are budgeted at £8.1m and it raises nearly £6m a year through donations, legacies and fundraising activities.

Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK said: "To hear of yet another hospice having to reduce services is devastating, especially when we know demand for the dedicated, specialist care provided by hospices is increasing."

He said 16 hospices had already been forced to cut services and called for "a long-term solution to hospice funding" to give dying people the care they need.