Fife health chiefs have been accused of trying to close down Dunfermline’s hospice by stealth.
The palliative care ward at Queen Margaret Hospital has again been stripped of beds and all patients transferred to the hospice in Kirkcaldy.
It follows a temporary reopening last year while the building in the grounds of Victoria Hospital was refurbished.
The Dunfermline ward first closed at the start of the Covid pandemic, with NHS Fife saying they had to protect their most vulnerable patients.
And while the health board insisted the closure was not permanent, it later announced palliative care services across the region were under review.
Furious Labour MSP Claire Baker said: “They moved all the beds out last month without telling anyone.
“I doubt very much there is an innocent explanation for this.
“Services don’t tend to reopen once they’ve been shut.
“But NHS Fife is not being open and transparent.”
‘I really appreciated the care they gave my dad’
Mrs Baker has been pushing for answers on the future of the nine-bed Dunfermline hospice since September 2020.
Her father, former Fife Labour councillor Jim Brennan, was cared for there in his final days in 2017.
And she said: “I really appreciated the care staff gave my dad and the support they gave me.
“It’s a very different experience to that of a normal hospital ward.
The MSP added: “Palliative care services should be delivered as locally as possible.
“I get that more people want to be cared for at home but that’s not an option for everyone. The issue is about choice.
“It’s very difficult for a lot of people in west Fife to travel to and from Kirkcaldy, especially when they have a loved one who is dying.
“But I have real concerns that service will never reopen.”
Work to determine future of palliative care is ongoing
NHS Fife confirmed the in-patient hospice service returned to Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy on February 9.
They said the move was announced on their website and in a briefing to elected members the previous week.
Work to determine the long-term future of in-patient end-of-life care is ongoing, they said.
And proposals will be put before the board later this year.
However, health bosses have again insisted no final decisions have been taken.
Lynne Garvey, head of community care services with Fife Health and Social Care Partnership, said the model of one in-patient hospice, adopted at the start of Covid, was still in place.
And more patients are being cared for in their own homes.
Despite this, Queen Margaret Hospice is still advertised as an option on the NHS Fife website.
Demand for in-patient hospice care has fallen in Fife
Ms Garvey added: “We continue to see a sustained reduction in the demand for in-patient end-of-life care, with very many people wishing instead to be cared for at home.
“Indeed, between 2019 and 2022 the average waiting times for an in-patient hospice bed in Fife halved, from an average of 3.4 days to 1.7 days.
“For those who are unable to, or who would prefer not to receive palliative care at home, there continues to be access to inpatient palliative and end-of-life care within wards five and six at Queen Margaret Hospital, in addition to the Victoria Hospice.”
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