MP hopeful for Cambridge hospice campaign after Downing Street petition
The petition was handed into Number 10 by campaigners and other MPs
An MP is hopeful more progress can be made to stop planned cuts at the Arthur Rank Hospice in Cambridge.
Nine hospice beds could be lost if more than £800,000 isn't raised in the next five months.
Campaigners including Vivien Biggs - whose husband was cared for by the hospice last year - alongside Cambridgeshire's Liberal Democrat MPs Ian Sollom, Charlotte Cane and Pippa Heylings handed in a petition to Downing Street yesterday calling to scrap the cuts.
"I think it took everybody by surprise the level of response to those cuts, I don't think people expected people just to come out in their droves and speak up to say 'this isn't right'," Ms Heylings, MP for South Cambridgeshire, said.
"I think the volume of signatures, the amount of messages of support for the Arthur Rank Hospice, I do think this will put all the negotiations on a different footing to find a solution together."
Since October, the Liberal Democrats say the petition has been signed more than 15,500 times.
Figures reported by the party claim two in five hospices are planning cuts this year, while half of children’s hospices may have to reduce or stop providing end-of-life care altogether if new funding is not provided within six months.
Lisa Smart's daughter Emily received care from the Arthur Rank Hospice after she was diagnosed with a rare spinal cord tumour in 2020.
Emily died the following year.
"They supported us at home as a family and gave Emily every bit of equipment and support that she needed," Lisa said.
"I was able to stay with Emily in a bed next to her 24/7; we could have as many visitors and family friends as we wanted.
"I was so devastated when I heard the news (about the hospice bed cuts) that I wanted to do something, and to come down (to London) and take the petition is such a privilege."
Mr Sollom - MP for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire - believes the campaign can work as a way of persuading ministers to take positive action.
"It is part of a much wider campaign to keep the funding for hospices open and properly roll out that move from hospital to community care," he said.
"That's what the Government says it wants to do, so we're just encouraging them to get on and do it."
We've approached the Government for comment.
Since 2017, the hospice - which has 21 beds - has been looking after patients from Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge who would otherwise be cared for in the hospital itself.
The Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said it has decided to pull the funding next year after undertaking an "affordability and value for money assessment."
But the Trust has said it still wants to "ensure highly quality, appropriate and accessible palliative care provision is maintained across the community.”
Ms Heylings hopes after the trip to Downing Street, talks with local health bosses can carry on.
"So what we can do is to write to the new director of the Integrated Care Board and it gives the possibility for conversations - which were happening with the hospital - to continue," she added.