The Iain Rennie Hospice At Home has expressed dismay at the proposed cuts in community nursing and hospice beds recently announced by Aylesbury Vale Primary Care Trust. This local charity which provides nursing care at home for patients with terminal illnesses is already seeing an increase in referrals and workload which it believes will be exacerbated by any NHS cuts.

Iain Rennie's Chief Executive, Rowena Dean said, “These proposals will inevitably lead to even greater demands on the 24 hour on-call nursing service that the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home nurses provide, free of charge, to patients in mid and south Bucks. We will struggle to cope with more patients needing our help because hospice beds will not be available and there will be more out of hours calls to our nurses because of the cutbacks in NHS community nursing. Whilst we will do all we can to maintain the quality of the service we offer, it all adds up to a poorer service for some of the most vulnerable people in our communities who deserve better care at the end of their lives.”

The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home receives just 14% of its income from the NHS and fares badly in comparison to an average of 28% NHS funding in England . This makes the Iain Rennie Hospice at Home highly reliant on community support through fundraising, donations, its hospice shops and legacies. “We worry about our high level of reliance on voluntary income,” said Rowena Dean. “We are proud to work alongside our valued community nursing colleagues, the GPs and the local hospices to do the best we can for every patient, but we urgently need extra NHS funding to keep up with the growing need for hospice at home care, let alone pick up the extra pressures caused by additional NHS cuts. We receive wonderful support from our local communities but I wonder how much more we can ask of local people when the NHS is failing to make a reasonable contribution towards hospice care.”

The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home provides specialist nursing care for patients in the Chilterns area of Hertfordshire and Buckinghamshire with a terminal or life-threatening illness. By offering patients the choice to be cared for at home the The Iain Rennie Hospice at Home saves the NHS money by reducing the need for expensive hospital admissions. The 24 hour on-call service is available to anyone living with a terminal illness who wishes to be cared for in their own home and forms a part of the vital range of services provided by the NHS and other agencies. The service is offered free of charge to patients and families. Iain Rennie Nurses cared for a total of 792 patients in the year to 31st March 2006.