A Fife health campaigner fears cancer patients could miss out on hospice care if plans to axe beds are given the go-ahead.
Ward 16 at Queen Margaret Hospital in Dunfermline could be cut to save NHS Fife £320,000 a year.
The unit was granted a reprieve after the closure plans prompted outrage, but there are fears it could still be sacrificed to save money.
At its last meeting, NHS Fife’s operational division committee postponed a decision on the ward to allow time for a report on palliative care across Fife to be prepared.
Councillor Andrew Rodger warned that closing hospice beds could lead to cancer patients being treated in acute wards because there is nowhere else to put them.
“Four in 10 people take cancer, and that’s rising all the time,” he said. “What I’m saying is that the acute sector is taking more and more patients with cancer into their beds.
“If someone has lung cancer and is not fit to go home they need to be transferred to a hospice, but if that’s not available these people will end up in the acute sector and that’s shocking.”
He added, “It does Fife no credit to continually look for savings amongst the most vulnerable in our society.
“We need more hospice beds, not less, and we need them in west Fife, central Fife and north-east.”OpennessHe called for “openness and transparency” from NHS Fife about the number of beds available, and added that plans to shut down 300 beds across the acute and community hospitals sector could lead to patients such as stroke victims missing out on care.
The health board is considering the move to allow more people to be cared for at home.
“Work has started on looking at closing down 300 beds,” he added. “Yes, this would be good if everything is in place in the community before we close beds. What happens in Fife is they close beds before things are in place.
“Two weeks ago I attended a meeting regarding patient targets for admittance to hospital regarding stroke services, where the target was to aim for 90% of all patients with a diagnosis of stroke to be admitted to a stroke unit on the day of admission, or the day following presentation.
“That target should be 100%. My point is this-there is a bed shortage at the moment, especially in the Victoria and Queen Margaret, and that has a knock on effect on other hospitals and leads to patients being boarded from ward to ward and hospital to hospital and that is when mistakes are made in patient care.”
An NHS Fife spokeswoman said, “NHS Fife is exploring how to improve current palliative care services for the people of Fife.
“The work that is currently under way is based on the national policy known as Living And Dying Well, which presents an action plan for palliative and end of life care in Scotland.
“The action plan recognises that many terminally-ill people would prefer to die at home and NHS Fife runs a comprehensive and supportive community palliative care service to reflect this.
“There is clearly a place for hospice beds in the treatment and support of these patients as they move into the terminal stage of their illness.
“In Fife, unlike much of the rest of Scotland, there is no voluntary hospice provision and hospice provision is the responsibility of the NHS. Our objective is to meet the needs of the people of Fife who often choose to die at home.”