Hospice UK surprised by NHS CEO's poor value remark

Since 2018 Arthur Rank said the bed occupancy across the contract was 68.4%

The chief executive of Hospice UK has expressed "surprise and concern" after an NHS boss called one charity's beds "very poor value for money".

Nine inpatient beds at the Cambridge-based Arthur Rank Hospice are expected to close after the trust that operates Addenbrooke's Hospital removed £800,000 funding.

Roland Sinker, the CEO of Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust (CUH), called the hospice's media campaign "aggressive" and said Addenbrooke's had plans to create a hospice facility on site.

Toby Porter, the CEO of Hospice UK, said: "I remain deeply sceptical that you will be able to provide care more cheaply... that would fly in front of almost all available evidence and analysis."

Arthur Rank has claimed the funding cut would mean "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".

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

Mr Sinker said it was an "extraordinarily unusual situation" for a hospital to fund hospice care and told a public meeting on Tuesday it had not been "rash" in removing the funding.

Roland Sinker said the hospice beds were "very, very poor value for money"

Mr Sinker went on to say the trust was "quite taken aback and surprised by the aggressive nature of the Arthur Rank response", which had "left a very bad taste in the mouth".

Arthur Rank said it was "perplexed by the suggestion that [its campaign] is aggressive or directed at Addenbrooke's".

Mr Porter has since written to Mr Sinker "to express my surprise and concern at your remarks" and believed there were "lessons to learn on all sides of this".

"For the record, my understanding is that a large part of the reason Arthur Rank went public in the first place with their concerns is because people at a lower level than you in the trust would simply not share any details of the business case or value for money assessment that they had been given as the reason for removing their funding," Mr Porter said.

He said Arthur Rank was in "the most financially insecure 20%" of UK hospices, adding: "Don't please be under any illusion that they won't be hugely impacted by the loss of this funding."

A spokesperson for CUH said: "We care deeply about providing high-quality end of life care for our patients and are creating a dedicated facility at Addenbrooke's to meet the evolving requirements of the whole region.

"We recognise this decision has been difficult for everyone concerned but remain committed to collaborating with the [integrated care board] and wider system to ensure highly quality, appropriate and accessible palliative care provision is maintained across the community."