Six worried North East Derbyshire District Councillors have called for action from the NHS Integrated Care Board after Chesterfield-based Ashgate Hospice has been forced to slash their number of beds from up to 21 to six with feared job cuts.
Ashgate Hospice, on Ashgate Rd, at Old Brampton, in Chesterfield, which is dependent on funding and donations provides respite and care for seriously ill patients and those needing end-of-life care as well as support for patients’ families and friends.
The charity-run hospice has announced that it is being been forced to make £2.6m of savings with plans to reduce inpatient beds, make staff cuts that could see 52 jobs losses, and to introduce a reduction in care and support services.
Shocked Independent NE Derbyshire District Councillors, including Cllr Ross Shipman, have written to Amanda Sullivan, Chief Executive of NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, raising concerns about what they claim is ‘continued underfunding from the NHS’ while calling for a fairer funding model and a review of funding arrangements.
Cllr Shipman said: “Ashgate Hospice provides exceptional end-of-life care to patients and families across North Derbyshire offering support that is both clinically vital and emotionally irreplaceable.
“Despite this, Ashgate receives significantly less NHS funding than comparable hospices in the south of the county where care is fully funded.
“This inequity is simply indefensible. The patients and families served by Ashgate Hospice deserve the same level of support and dignity as those living elsewhere in Derbyshire.
“No hospice should be forced into ‘heartbreaking choices’ – to quote [Ashgate Hospice] Chief Executive Barbara-Anne Walker – because of an arbitrary funding gap.”
Cllr Shipman added that the announcement has caused ‘widespread anxiety’ in the community and residents, staff and volunteers feel the hospice has been placed in an impossible position that risks diminishing end-of-life care for the whole of North Derbyshire.
The six Independent district councillors, at the Labour-controlled council, have urged the NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB to review current funding arrangements, provide assurances that funding allocations in Derbyshire are equitable based on need not geography, and that the ICB should work collaboratively with the hospice to establish a sustainable funding model to secure its long-term future.
Cllr Shipman added: “Ashgate Hospice has stood by our community for decades providing compassion and expertise at the most difficult times in people’s lives. It is now time for the NHS to stand by Ashgate.”
The six Independent district councillors, including Cllr Shipman, Heather Liggett, David Hancock, Michael Roe, Pam Windley and Jess Stokes have also requested a meeting with Ms Sullivan in their bid to ensure the people of North Derbyshire can continue to receive end-of-life care.
Cllr Shipman has also written to North East Derbyshire Labour MP Louise Sandher-Jones asking what action she may be taking with the Labour Government to ensure equitable hospice funding for North Derbyshire.
Despite the outstanding quality of its care, months of negotiations and the support of MPs across Derbyshire, Ashgate has been unsuccessful in its bid to get the local NHS to increase its funding settlement.
Rising costs, increasing demand, and the fact that the local NHS only pays for just 50per cent of the care it commissions from Ashgate have led to an unsustainable financial situation with the charity’s reserves becoming critically low.
Barbara-Anne Walker, Chief Executive at Ashgate Hospice, described the situation as ‘hugely frustrating and upsetting’.
She highlighted the impact of inflation, rising energy bills, and staff salaries on the hospice’s £18.5m annual running costs while claiming that NHS contributions have remained at unfairly low levels.
Ms Walker said the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board does not fund the hospice fairly for the specialist care it is asked to provide.
She added: “We have been speaking to the local NHS for months now to prevent this happening – including highlighting how specialist end-of-life care is fully funded by the NHS in South Derbyshire while here in the North we have to ask the local community to make up a huge shortfall.
“It’s heartbreaking that we have to go ahead with these plans, and we are sure our community will be rightly outraged.”
The hospice currently operates 15 of its 21 available inpatient beds, with six beds already closed due to insufficient funding.
Due to the lack of NHS funding that number would fall by more than half to just six beds, according to the hospice, putting further pressure on local hospitals including Chesterfield Royal Hospital.
Ashgate Hospice says it already works to a waiting list every day with, sadly, some people dying while waiting for a bed to become available.
The hospice is consulting on proposals to reduce beds, reshape some of its services, and make changes to team structures.
An expected 52 roles from the hospice workforce of 378 staff are at risk of redundancy, according to the hospice, with the impact being felt across the hospice’s therapy, counselling and wider support teams including marketing and communications and HR but the hospice has emphasised no immediate changes will be made to patient care during the consultation.
The charity claims funding for specialist end of life care across Derbyshire is unfair because in the south of the county, specialist end of life care is fully funded by the NHS but in North Derbyshire Ashgate Hospice must raise donations to cover the same care.
During the 2024/25 financial year, the hospice received almost £10 million thanks to donations, fundraising, retail income and the hard work of staff but even this amount of money is still not enough to sustain the hospice at the same level, according to Ms Walker.
The hospice has stated that its latest proposed changes would mean the hospice would support 600 fewer patients a year.
Labour Chesterfield and Staveley MP, Toby Perkins, said: “It is very disappointing that palliative care patients in North Derbyshire will lose access to these beds and that workers at the hospice will be worrying if they still have a job.”
Cllr Perkins added that he and Parliamentary colleagues have been engaged in discussions with Ashgate Hospice and the Derbyshire Integrated Care Board and the cluster ICBs.
He added: “It is utterly unacceptable that an outstanding hospice should be in a situation where they have no choice but to announce job cuts and to close more specialist beds when the care they provide is outstanding and so highly valued by everyone in our community.
“I will continue to press Derby and Derbyshire ICB to sit down with the hospice and urgently ensure the fair and sustainable funding that Ashgate and the people of North Derbyshire urgently need.”
Ashgate Hospice is currently in a 30-day consultation period before any final decisions are made.
During this time, the hospice says patient care will not be impacted and its priority is to ensure that patients continue to receive care and that staff are supported throughout the consultation.
Amanda Sullivan, Chief Executive of NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, has said the ICB greatly values the work of the hospice sector and it is sorry to learn from Ashgate Hospice about its proposals to cut services.
She added that the Derbyshire ICB believes the level of funding it provides to Ashgate Hospice is fair when compared with benchmarks for the hospice sector nationally and it is also in line with NHS England guidance.
Ms Sullivan said its core contract value with Ashgate Hospice has increased in value by 55per cent since the 2022/23 financial year and the request for a multi-million pound increase in funding during this financial year is especially difficult at a time when the whole health system is under extreme financial pressure and when no additional services would be provided.
She added: “We have been working with the Ashgate team over several months to understand why their costs have risen so significantly this financial year.
“We have offered to support Ashgate in reviewing the way care is provided for the North Derbyshire community, working in partnership with health, social care and the voluntary sector.
“We will now work with Ashgate and the rest of the health and care system to mitigate the impact of these proposals.”
Ashgate was rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission earlier this year with 100per cent ratings in four out of five categories giving it one of the highest scores in the country.
It provides specialist palliative and end of life care to around 2,600 patients and the people important to them annually.
The hospice has launched the Act Now for Ashgate campaign urging the public to contact the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board to call for fair and sustainable funding for end-of-life care in North Derbyshire.
Members of the public can contact the DDICB to ask for fair funding for Ashgate Hospice via email at ddicb.complaints@nhs.net or by post to: Chief Executive Officer, NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board, The Council House, First Floor, Corporation Street, Derby DE1 2FS.
