Concerns as Kensington hospice shuts inpatient unit due to lack of staff

Health campaigners have voiced their concerns after an inpatient unit at a west London hospice was forced to close because of difficulties recruiting a consultant.

Central London Community Healthcare NHS Trust said it had "temporarily suspended" inpatient admissions to the 13-bed palliative care unit at Pembridge Hospice in north Kensington because of a lack of consultant medical cover.

The trust said: "Despite significant efforts to source a doctor, we have not been able to secure cover for this essential post."

It is referring people who need to stay to other hospices for their care.

The move has not affected services offered by the day hospice or palliative care team at the hospice in Exmoor Street which was rated good by Care Quality Commission inspectors when they visited last year.

Anne Drinkell who chairs the west London branch of Save Our Hospitals, said: "Our concern is to get assurance that this situation is genuinely short term and that in the long run the Pembridge inpatient unit will reopen. It is very well regarded locally, it fulfils a vital role and in the long term as people choose not to die in hospital we could not afford to lose the Pembridge capacity without a significant deterioration in the quality of palliative care offered across North West London."

She has written to the trust’s CEO Andrew Ridley pointing out her concerns.

She wrote: "We assume that you share the view of most clinicians that continuity of care is particularly important in the palliative care stage of people's lives so that they get support from the clinicians and networks who may have been caring for them for many months or years."

She added: "It is also imperative that families and friends are not burdened by long and difficult journeys to visit their loved ones so they can fully participate in the patient's care if that is the patient's wish."

The trust said its advice line continues to operate 24 hours a day via the usual 020 8102 5000 number and it is continuing to support people who want to be supported to stay at home.