Residents and politicians are ‘very worried’ about plans to replace an urgent hospice at home nursing service with a telephone-based service in southern Scotland.
The Marie Curie Urgent Hospice at Home service in Dumfries and Galloway is set to become a specialised palliative care telephone service from early next year.
The charity says the changes will avoid unnecessary ambulance call outs and hospital admissions, while giving palliative care patients the opportunity to speak with a Marie Curie nurse to help meet their needs and concerns over the phone.
While the hospice at home nursing team is expected to remain the same size, a petition has been running for several weeks, demanding a reversal to the ‘cutback’ of Marie Curie palliative care services in the region.
The petition now has more than 2,200 signatures, with over 250 people signing in the past week.
Local resident Paul McGill, who launched the petition, says he has seen ‘first-hand’ how life limiting illness can affect individuals and families.
‘In this difficult journey, Marie Curie palliative care services have been a haven, offering rapid response services for end-of-life care in Dumfries and Galloway,’ Mr McGill wrote on the petition site.
‘Nurses and health care support workers from Marie Curie extend the comfort of home to those in their final days, ensuring dignity, privacy and timely care that hospitals, often overcrowded, cannot always provide.’
NHS Dumfries and Galloway currently commissions two services from Marie Curie, a ‘Planned Response’ and ‘Rapid Response’ service.
The changes are taking place in the ‘Rapid Response’ service, which is currently only provided in the east of the region.
The ‘Rapid Response’ service sees Marie Curie staff calling and being contacted by palliative care patients in the community from around 10pm each night and providing unscheduled overnight support visits where needed.
From January 2025, this specialised palliative care telephone service will be extended to replace in-person nurse visits from 6pm until midnight, seven days a week.
South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth is due to meet with Marie Curie directors in Scotland to discuss the planned changes.
Writing on his website Mr Smyth said it is ‘completely understandable’ that people are worried about the proposals.
‘The Marie Curie community nursing team in our region are invaluable to the many residents in Dumfries and Galloway who need end of life care,’ he wrote.
‘The work of Marie Curie has touched so many families in our region and has made an enormous difference at what is an enormously difficult time.’
Under the new plans, a Marie Curie nurse would still speak to the patient and undertake the first line of assessment, but this would now be done over the phone rather than in person.
The ‘Planned Service’, where a Marie Curie staff member spends pre-scheduled time in someone’s, will continue unchanged.
Libby Milton, associate director of strategic partnerships and services at Marie Curie Scotland, said the charity believes the new service ‘will be of great benefit’ to patients and families in Dumfries and Galloway.
‘Providing care and support is at the heart of Marie Curie, and for people at end of life, Marie Curie’s community nursing team will continue delivering planned overnight care and support to patients and their families in the comfort of their own homes across Dumfries and Galloway,’ she said.
