Moves to secure palliative care service hailed as ‘brilliant’

A breakthrough in talks to secure the future of Fife’s palliative care services has been hailed as brilliant news.

Pittenweem woman Nan Bond said she was confident Marie Curie would find a way to continue to provide nursing care to people at the end of their lives after the charity announced it was working with Fife Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) on the issue.

Mrs Bond started a petition to save the service last week when Marie Curie said it would remove its nurses from the region at the end of May amid concerns over the terms of a new contract.

The 70-year-old, whose late husband, Rab, was cared for by Marie Curie nurses, said she was delighted work was now ongoing to ensure the service can continue.

“I have had many sleepless nights worrying about the fact these patients were going to be left without care and support,” she said.

“Fife will be so thrilled as I know the outrage and disappointment that was out there when this sad news made the headlines.

“To take this care away from patients at this very crucial time in their illness would have been so cruel.”

Former HSCP chairman Andrew Rodger said he would be cancelling a planned silent protest in light of the news but warned he would reorganise it if services came under renewed threat.

“They can’t continue putting people under pressure, especially people with cancer,” he said.

“I may have left the health service but I’ll be monitoring this closely from now on.

“I won’t do the protest now because this is what I wanted but if they try this again I won’t hesitate.”

Current HSCP chairman councillor David Graham, welcomed this week’s talks.

“I know from visiting and speaking to teams across health and social care that the provision of high quality care is first and foremost – whether it is delivered from inhouse teams or from our voluntary or independent providers – and I await the final outcome of the discussions,” he said.