Grief-stricken relative finds it “ridiculous” to learn Derbyshire palliative care service has been reduced

Lia Copestake, who lives on the Derbyshire border, was heartbroken after her mother Judy Haywood passed away aged 78 but she was greatly relieved that her mother’s wishes to die peacefully at home were fulfilled thanks to DHU Healthcare’s award-winning Palliative Care Urgent Response Service.

However, Ms Copestake has been shocked after the NHS Derby and Derbyshire Integrated Care Board altered its commissioning arrangement and withdrew funding for DHU Healthcare to deliver the PCURS seven-days-a-week after the board believes there is sufficient alternative care.

Ms Copestake said: “It’s ridiculous. I now know other people who have had that intervention from them and how grateful they are.

“They are saving the hospitals from having people going into hospital and putting families’ minds at rest and making sure medication is right because they are qualified and they ensure families have the right contact details.

“People want to die at home for everybody and for themselves but I understand some people have to be in hospital when there is no choice, but at the moment there is a choice for some to die at home.

“They have been allowing that to happen in a managed and supported way. That is gold dust.”

Bolsover District Cllr Donna Hales raised concerns after she understood how good the DHU Healthcare PCURS had been from a person who had experienced excellent care from the team and she is also disappointed to see the service reduced.

The PCURS provided support seven-days-a-week to patients in need of palliative and end-of-life care as well as for their families and loved ones so patients could die peacefully in their homes instead of at hospitals.

The NHS stated changes to its palliative care provision for Derbyshire came into effect from September 2 and the PCURS has now been reduced from seven-days-a-week to just weekends and bank holidays for those in need of urgent intervention.

Ms Copestake described her mum as the “life and soul of the party” and that she was very well known and that everybody loved her.

Mother and grandmother, Mrs Haywood, had become poorly with very bad indigestion, according to Ms Copestake, and she was originally treated at the Royal Derby Hospital and she had widespread duodenal cancer and this spread to her liver.

Ms Copestake said: “They offered her chemotherapy but she said, ‘no, if it’s curtains, it’s curtains.’ She was very philosophical.

“We looked at everything for treatment – Japan, New York – and she said, ‘no,’ because she wanted some sort of quality of life.”

Before Mrs Haywood passed away she travelled to Dublin and even flew in a Tiger Moth plane just weeks before she lost her fight for life.

The family was introduced to the PCURS after they had been struggling to help and care for their Mrs Haywood at home while she had been in ‘absolute agony.’

Ms Copestake said she spoke to a doctor who called her back and sent out the PCURS team with nurse Jill Davies.

She added: “She was phenomenal and she put mine and my brother’ minds at peace and she listened to us.

“They arrived as this wonderful calm and knowledgeable team and listened to my brother and I after we had been so diligent to write down charts and the effects.

“She was amazing because she had the capacity and experience and was a prescribing nurse and she looked at mum’s prescription and said, ‘we are going to start again,’ and they did. She absolutely took control.

“They were brilliant with mum when they gave her the right meds and they said, ‘look Judy, it’s not a competition, you do not have to be in pain.'”

Ms Copestake, who lives near Burton-upon-Trent, added that the PCURS team was amazing during a further home visit at a particularly bad time for Mrs Haywood.

She added: “It feels like they are sent by a magic force and I suddenly felt confident and mum felt confident. It was extraordinary for her to remain at home.”

Ms Copestake described the PCURS as “knights” and she would like to compare any costs for home support with those for ambulance call-outs and hospital care because she feels there must be another way so people can still die peacefully at home with family.

A DHU Healthcare spokesperson said it was “incredibly disappointing” to learn the PCURS was being reduced but the DDICB has claimed people at end-of-life will still be supported by professional care from doctors, nurses, community teams, and hospices.

The NHS also stated in urgent cases at weekends and bank holidays there will still be two vehicles, one covering north Derbyshire and another for south Derbyshire between the times of 8am and 6pm.

It added that DHU Healthcare will also be providing a palliative triage practitioner as part of the Clinical Navigation Hub during these times to give advice and support to patients, carers and healthcare professionals via a 111 phone line or a Health Care Professional line.

The DDICB claimed the PCURS had been funded through a mixture of one-off funding sources and it was not a formally commissioned service by the DDICB and people will still receive high levels of compassionate and professional care from doctors, nurses and community teams funded through other contracts across the NHS and hospice sector.