I have been reading about the proposed closure of Hayward House which provides daycare and inpatient services for people with cancer. The aim seems to be to keep inpatient care in the same building, but make it open to patients with any terminal illness.
Patients with terminal illnesses who use the daycare provision will be transferred to other services such as Nottinghamshire Hospice.
However campaigners argue that they won’t receive the same level of service as other providers do not have palliative care Dr’s and Consultants. And that when they are admitted as an in patient, the surroundings are already familiar to patients.
As an outsider it is really difficult to judge these things. It does sound as if daycare patients will receive a worse service. I personally agree that good quality palliative care should be open to all terminally ill patients and not just those with cancer. However, reducing the level of daycare services does not seem the best way to do this.
What is striking though is how the NHS Nottingham Board Meeting made the decision to do this. According to Chris Cann who wrote to the post after attending the meeting -
“Dawn Smith, director of delivery and performance, explained to the board that it was not a closure, but a “transfer” of services. She explained that patients were not going to lose their service; it was just going to be transferred “into the community” and “specialist services will continue to be available to all patients”.
She said that this was not about decreasing investment, but changes were driven by the need to extend the range of specialist services to a wider group of patients.”
I have sat on various Boards where the officers have made recommendations and given advice where the issues are fudged and therefore poor decisions are made. It sounds as if this might have been the case here.
Follow the links below to read more about this proposed closure and Chris Cann’s letter.
Posted by nottgirl 
