Cancer sufferer claims patients are having their choice taken away

Ian Boak, who suffers from Prostrate Cancer, has slammed the proposal which is set to be approved by NHS Fife Health Board later this month.

"If you look at the catchment area for the NHS Fife, it stretches all the way to Kincardine. If they shut the hospice down if you have a loved one in Kirkcaldy, it is a long way to go there. It is ridiculous," he said.

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"They are taking the choice away from people. My mum wanted to die at home but my father and I struggled because you have to walk past the bedroom where she passed away. It took a long, long time before that went to a level that was acceptable."

Mr Boak said he believes NHS Fife are trying to paint a "rosey" picture of the hospice arrangement.

"If you are dying at home, say you have a trachectomy, that needs taking out all the time. You then have to train the husband or wife up to do that. It is just crazy," he said.

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"Not all cancers, you pass away easily. For most, you are in a lot of discomfort.

"If it was my wife, and I am on the phone saying we need help, are there enough nurses to cover everyone? They are taking the choice away. If this cancer gets me, I want to die in the hospice. I don't want my wife, my daughter to pass the room I died in every day.

"My prognosis currently is good but who knows what it could be. I thought it was away and it has come back. They are taking the choice away. We should have the choice to pass away in the hospice.

"It is silly. If you get a phone call and you are in Kincardine that things aren't good, you have got another 10 or 12 miles to get there. That can be critical at that time."

Mr Boak also expressed fears for the staff working to provide the palliative care.

"I am sure if you speak to one of the nurses running from house to house, they are going to be stressed out, moving round and about," he said.

"I had a friend in the hospice and she said the machinery they have there to keep people comfortable to the end, you can not have at home.

"The nurses will do their best but they will be stressing out trying to get from patient to patient. The poor soul in Kirkcaldy trying to deal with people wanting to come in.

"I have been treated absolutely brilliantly by the NHS from the point when I was first diagnosed but they are just taking the choice away from people. It is just silly."

NHS Fife say the move to a single hospice during the pandemic allowed specialist palliative care staff to provide outreach care in the community.

The team can now care for as many as 60 patients at any time, across communities, care homes, hospitals and the hospice.

For those who are unable to, or who would prefer to be cared for in hospital or require hospice care, there continues to be access to inpatient palliative and end of life care beds in five community hospitals across Fife, including the Queen Margaret Hospital.

Fife Health and Social Care Partnership’s Head of Community Care Services, Lynne Garvey, added: “We want to ensure that patients across the whole of Fife, their families and loved ones, can get access to the very best care and support possible, particularly in the final months and weeks of their life.

“It’s vitally important that we provide patients with greater choice around all aspects of their care, and we are now in a position to do this by expanding the way we deliver specialist palliative care across Fife, giving patients and families greater choice.

“The proposals will also help us better meet the needs of our population by widening and ensuring equity of access, while enabling far greater numbers of patients in Fife to receive specialist palliative care.”