Overnight care service to end due to funding cuts

An overnight nursing service that offers palliative care will end after an NHS trust withdrew funding.

Marie Curie's service in Ipswich and Suffolk has been financed by a grant from NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board (ICB), which will end on 31 March.

Julie Quinn, from the charity, said while she understood the financial pressures facing the NHS the decision was "deeply disappointing".

A spokesperson for the ICB thanked the charity for their work, but said now was the time "to implement a more neighbourhood-based approach".

The service supported 470 patients and delivered 15,385 hours of vital care in the last financial year.

The charity said it could not continue delivering its care without the grant and the organisation's local leaders were consulting with staff and also speaking with the ICB to ensure patient care was not affected when the service ends.

"It is deeply disappointing that such a vital and long-standing, end-of-life service will no longer be available to the people of Ipswich and Suffolk," Quinn, who is the associate director of strategic partnerships and services at the charity in the East of England.

She added that end-of-life care "must be properly funded" and that charities "cannot and should not be expected to deliver care commissioned by the NHS without NHS funding support".

"Integrated care boards are responsible for commissioning services that meet local need and without long-term funding support, more and more people will lose access to essential care," she added.

A spokesperson for the ICB said its role was to "ensure all patients receive the most appropriate care" and "now is the time to implement a more neighbourhood-based approach, which means extending access to the support available to people within their community".

"Our commitment to improving end-of-life and palliative care remains and there will be no reduction in the overall level of funding for these services.

"Over the coming months we will be working closely with patients and health and care partners to map out the future of these services, with focus on ensuring the very best of care," they added.

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