Cynthia Spencer Hospice is extremley unlikely to close as a result of plans to scale back NHS funding, sources close to the hospice have told the Chron.
A number of petitions, campaigns and protests have been organised since reports last week that the NHS was looking to reduce spending on Cynthia Spencer Hospice, in Northampton, and Cransley Hospice, in Kettering.
And it is now understood that Cynthia Spencer Charitable Trust will eventually have to raise an extra £1.5 to £2 million a year to replace the NHS money.
However sources connected to the hospice have said the talks so far indicate fundraisers will be able to cope.
A source said: “As long as the money is withdrawn gradually, there’s no chance of it closing.
“Time has to be allowed to start generating the levels of fundraising needed but that is the only real concern. Hospices elsewhere cope and Northamptonshire is no different from them.”
Talks between the NHS and trustees of the two charities involved in Cynthia Spencer Hospice, the charitable trust and The Friends of Cynthia Spencer, are still going on and may not conclude for months.
NHS Nene proposes to structure Cynthia Spencer’s funding more like that of the majority of hospices, with 70 per cent raised through charitable means and 30 per cent given by the NHS.
But the proposal has contunued to alarm users of the hospice and their family members.
Campaigners have started a Facebook page that has attracted over 2,600 ‘likes’ and over 880 people have signed an online petition
A demonstration is also planned for 2pm on Saturday afternoon outside All Saints Church, in Northampton town centre.
Richard Garvie, a radio presenter from Kettering, who started the campaign. “It was important to me that people were made aware of what is happening, and to show the hospice that the community are right behind them at this difficult time.
“The huge response will hopefully go some way to showing the NHS just how strongly people are feeling.”