The news regarding potential job losses and service cuts at Ashgate Hospice is devastating. I often say there is almost no-one across the town and North Derbyshire who hasn’t had a friend or family member who has been helped by the hospice and people will be rightly dismayed that their services face massive cuts.

There are also hundreds of my constituents who put massive amounts of time, effort and money into fundraising for the Hospice because of how important it is to the town.

I and parliamentary colleagues have been engaged in discussions for several months with Ashgate Hospice and first Derbyshire Integrated Care Board (ICB) and now the cluster ICBs regarding Ashgate’s claims that care in North Derbyshire is less well funded than in South Derbyshire and the ICB’s counter-assertion that Ashgate is too expensive and that costs have risen unreasonably in recent times. I want all of my constituents to receive the best end-of-life care possible and so it is very disappointing that palliative care patients in North Derbyshire will lose access to these beds and that workers at the Hospice will be worrying if they still have a job.

Ashgate Hospice, and other hospices across England, have been underfunded over several years meaning many have been using reserves to subsidise losses. Ashgate have reached a point where this is no longer sustainable, and they require a new funding settlement from the ICB.

I have spoken to the new NHS ICB Cluster Chief Executive on Monday to make it clear that I, and other Derbyshire MPs, believe it is utterly unacceptable that an outstanding hospice should be in a situation where they have no choice but to announce job cuts and to close more specialist beds when the care they provide is outstanding and so highly valued by everyone in our community.

The Labour Government has already provided an additional £100 million in funding for hospices this year and with a new budget to come next month there is a plan to start clawing back the position hospices have found themselves in, but that will not come soon enough to save these beds and jobs and so we need urgent action now.

I will update my constituents following further discussions with the cluster ICB.