Sue Ryder: no new hospice and that’s final

SUE RYDER says it will not attend a public meeting to explain its refusal to build a new hospice in South Oxfordshire.

Campaigners insist that a facility with between six and 10 beds is needed to replace the charity’s inpatient facility at Joyce Grove in Nettlebed, which it shut in March last year.

Although Oxfordshire’s NHS Clinical Commissioning Group is proposing two new hospice beds at Wallingford Community Hospital, the campaigners says this isn’t enough for everybody who wants one.

They have spoken to many families who lost loved ones at Nettlebed and said they couldn’t have coped if they had to care for them at home using Sue Ryder’s outpatient palliative care “hub” at Crowmarsh Gifford.

They say the charity should build a new hospice in its grounds or donate land for someone else to build it or give £5 million to a new charitable trust which would then raise a further £7 million to build it elsewhere in the district. The money could come from the upcoming sale of Joyce Grove, which is understood to be valued at £20 million. But Sue Ryder says this is out of the question because demand for beds has decreased so it wouldn’t be viable while the commissioning group’s proposal is more realistic.

Now it has refused to attend a meeting of the Townlands Steering Group to explain its decision.

A spokeswoman said: “Sue Ryder is fully supportive of the proposal put forward by the commissioning group and has good experience of supporting such a model with our community service at West Berkshire Community Hospital, which has been in place for many years.

“Based on the demand for inpatient care within South Oxfordshire since the closure at Nettlebed, as well as patient data and the drop in demand that led to the decision, Sue Ryder believes the provision of two palliative care beds at Wallingford will be adequate.

“Sue Ryder has explained its position in full. Responsibility for palliative inpatient care sits with the commissioning group and we have nothing more to add in a public meeting or otherwise.”