Health and Care Minister Stephen Kinnock to 'broker a discussion' between Integrated Care Board and Ashgate Hospice to 'get to the bottom of what’s going on'

Speaking at the Westminster Hall this morning, Chesterfield MP Toby Perkins raised concerns over the ‘distressing and unacceptable’ situation at the hospice and urged for action to ensure ‘every avenue’ to save jobs and beds at the ‘wonderful’ palliative care institution is explored.

Bolsover MP Natalie Fleet and Derbyshire Dales MP John Whitby, joined the debate echoing the issues and stressing the importance of the hospice for residents across North Derbyshire.

This comes after the hospice proposed service cuts and redundancies at its inpatient unit in October, leaving several members of staff at risk of losing their jobs just before Christmas.

While there have not been any cuts to Ashgate Hospice funding, the costs have increased by 55% since 2022, meaning the hospice is facing a significant financial shortfall every month, Mr Perkins explained.

Speaking at the House of Commons, he said: “This situation seems still largely unchanged since late October, and many staff face the threat of the redundancy and in the run up to Christmas some staff are reluctantly and heartbreakingly chosen to leave the hospice.

"For any member of staff in any profession a job being under threat before Christmas would be deeply worrying but it’s important to stress that nurses in the inpatient wards at Ashgate hospice are not just any member of staff.

"These nurses provide support for patients and families at their very darkest hour, when all else is lost and all that remains is the comfort provided from knowing that a dying loved one is comfortable and cared for in a beautiful, high quality and caring environment.

"The emotional strain on these nurses is huge and the public empathy and affection for them is widely felt. Their professionalism and compassion is renowned and the effect on them of these threatened job cuts has been devastating."

This comes after Ashgate announced it would be forced to reduce the number of beds in the inpatient unit from 15 to six due to financial difficulties in October, leaving up to 52 staff at risk of redundancies. This number has been later reduced to 34 roles across clinical and support teams.

19 staff members have been made redundant, while others have taken voluntary redundancy, retirement or have been part of service restructures to keep roles in place.

Over £250,000 have been raised by residents and business owners in recent weeks in a bid to help Ashgate, enabling the hospice to temporarily save two specialist inpatient beds for six months.

While Mr Perkins praised the local community for their invaluable support of Ashgate Hospice, he was disappointed by the ‘lack of clarity about what the current cost of care is and how this benchmarks against hospices nationally’.

These concerns were raised after NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board made an offer to carry out a full financial review into Ashgate Hospice, but saw their proposal rejected.

Mr Perkins said: “There is now widespread distrust which urgently needs clearing up.

"Hundreds of my constituents have contacted me as they have to my colleagues to voice their concerns about the situation at Ashgate Hospice and I know many have also written directly to ICB to make their case.

"Staff and unions have been left confused and concerned that the finances are not straight forward and remain frustrated through this process and have questions that every step has been taken to reduce costs.

“In the letter I received yesterday from ICB there’s a repeat of the suggestion that the ICB has offered to commission a independent review and some financial mitigation linked to specific and agreed service mitigations funded up to a £100,000.

"Indeed the ICB repeat their view that these financial investigations will be necessary if sustainable solutions are to be found to fund the palliative care going forward

"Ashgate’s view is that from their perspective there’s no lack of clarity on what money is being spent on and that they demonstrated this to the ICB’s director of finance in a recent visit.

"Ashgate has been alarmed that communications coming out from the ICB, which they believe undermine their reputation of professionalism and financial prudence. If trust in Ashgate’s ability to run their operations is diminished it will have grave consequences for the future fundraising.”

Mr Perkins added: “Yet what is not in question is that the care that Ashgate provides is outstanding and as of this new year dozens of North Derbyshire’s most gravely ill patients that would previously been able obtain a bed at Ashgate will now die either at home in less comfort and with family members put in intolerable situations or in an acute bed in a local hospital sector, quite possibly at greater cost and in less comfort than was a case last year.

"I want all my constituents to receive the best end of life care possible and it’s hugely disappointing that palliative care patients in North Derbyshire will lose access to these beds and the nurses at the hospice will be worrying if they still have a job.

"Since 1988 Ashgate Hospice has provided exemplary care to thousands of dying across north Derbyshire patients. It must go on. These nurses deserve better than to lose their jobs worrying if something else could have been done.”

Addressing the Health and Care Minister Stephen Kinnock, Mr Perkins urged him to intervene to ensure Ashgate Hospice and Derbyshire ICB come to a ‘transparent agreed position’ on the current funding situation.

The Chesterfield MP also called for the government to ensure ‘sufficient and sustainable’ funding for hospices across the country going forward.

In response, Mr Kinnock pledged to step in to help reach an agreement between the Derbyshire ICB and the hospice in order to do everything possible to ‘retain this virtually important service’.

He said: “It is clear that there are two sides to this story and it appears that there is a gulf in understanding between the ICB and the management team of Ashgate Hospice.

"I would be more than happy to broker a discussion between the ICB, the concerned members of parliament and the hospice to get to the bottom of what’s going on.”

The Minister further thanked Derbyshire communities for coming together to give their time, effort and money into fundraising for Ashgate.

He said: “The fact that this managed to save two beds from closing shows how important Ashgate is to the wider community even if challenges still clearly remain.”

Mr Kinnock spoke in length about difficult financial situation across the public services, confirming no further financial help could be offered for hospices at this time, in addition to the £100 million capital hospice funding boost announced last year.

The funding has been distributed among hospices across the country, with Ashgate Hospice receiving over £845, 000 over two years as a part of the scheme.

He added: “I want to take a moment to thank everyone working or volunteering at the hospice care sector over Christmas especially those who are spending Christmas Day away from their own families just to bring a bit of joy to the people they care for.

"We will continue to work with NHS England to effectively commission the palliative care and end of life care that is needed by their local populations.

"The work our hospices do to support people in the sunset of their lives, to support families in their grief and bereavement counselling in their most vulnerable moments is utterly priceless.

"It is a sad reflection of the dire fiscal position that we have inherited and the dire state of our public services that we can’t give more than the extra support I have outlined.”

A spokesperson for Ashgate Hospice said: “We would like to thank Toby Perkins MP, with the support of Natalie Fleet MP and John Whitby MP, for shining a light on the serious funding challenges facing Ashgate Hospice and the wider hospice sector during today’s Westminster Hall debate.

“We are hugely grateful that Minister for Care Stephen Kinnock MP acknowledges the pressures hospices are facing and for offering to help broker discussions between Ashgate and Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board.

"This intervention is very welcome, and we look forward to these discussions taking place in the New Year.

“Thanks to the generous support of our local community, we have been able to save two of Ashgate’s nine precious beds that were due to close, for a further nine months.

“Following our consultation process fewer roles have been lost than we feared. Nineteen roles are being made redundant across clinical and support teams, including five Inpatient Unit nurses.

"It’s important to be clear that none of our services are stopping completely. Some clinical services have been reduced, and others are being delivered in new ways to ensure sustainability.”

A spokesperson for NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board said: “We welcome the helpful discussion that took place in Westminster on Wednesday.

"The ICB is actively reviewing the detailed financial information shared with us by Ashgate Hospice.

"We hope to soon be able to confirm a way forward to ensure that citizens of north Derbyshire continue to receive excellent care and support at the end of their lives."

NHS Derby and Derbyshire made an offer to Ashgate on 17 October that it would fund an independent review of the current arrangements between Ashgate and the ICB.

The aim of the review was to provide an objective, shared, "open book" view of service costs and funding arrangements, drawing on benchmarking and comparators to be agreed between both parties, Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board said.

The funding offer of up to £100,000 was made to pay for the cost of the review and to pay towards specific and agreed mitigations of the services at risk.