People whose loved ones experienced overnight end of life care from a charity have stated their disappointment it’s no longer available in the county – although some have said they did have issues with the service.
Marie Curie recently expressed its ‘devastation’ that NHS Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) had decided to no longer provide the overnight service.
The NHS said it had not been able to ‘agree a delivery model’ to continue the service and said feedback of it had been ‘variable’. The decision does not affect daytime care.
The move led to a number of comments from Voice readers.
Jayne Hargreaves said: “How can you withdraw this? My husband had end of life care at 51 years of age and it was so devastating for us but they came into our home, like friends, and gave such a valuable, caring, end of life service.
“It’s so cruel to withdraw this for anyone.”
Elizabeth Lewis thanked those who worked for the service.
“I was so grateful for Marie Curie night care and Rapid Response team whilst my mum was coming to the end of her life,” she said.
Irene Woodrow was another to call the decision ‘devastating’.
“People at the end of their lives and their carers have received excellent support advice and ‘hands on care’ from this service for many years,” she said. “I have worked as a Marie Curie nurse in the past and have been so very sorry to see the reconfiguration of the service over the last years which has seen the service diluted and fragmented.
“The nurses have put their all into the service.
“Very sadly many people cared for by this service cannot voice their support as they are no longer with us but none will be forgotten by caring nursing teams.”
However, in response Anna-Maria Johnson said the service was late arriving for her dad because ‘they covered such a vast area’.
“It’s not the nurses’ fault, but the pain endured by the patient until they arrived was horrific,” she said. “It was better late than never but nevertheless this is tragic news for end of life patients when existing services are next to nothing.
“I can’t say we received excellent support from them out of hours but something was better than nothing.”
