news story
31st May 2006
Macmillan Petition to be Handed Over to Trust
Chiefs on Friday 2nd June
Click here to sign the petition
A petition with over 6,000 signatures in support of the Macmillan
Palliative Care Unit is
to be handed over to health bosses on Friday. The petition
has been jointly collected by Kingswood
resident Martin Stevens and by Northavon MP Steve Webb, who has
collected over 1,600 names via his website
alone. They will be presenting the petition to
the Clinical Director of North Bristol
NHS Trust, Dr. Martin Morse, at 10am outside the
Macmillan Unit on the Frenchay site.
They will be accompanied by friends and
relatives of those who have valued the care
that they have received at the Macmillan Unit.
MP Steve Webb add that he has now received a letter from the Chief
Executive of North Bristol Trust
(scroll down to read it)
in response
to specific questions he had asked about the
Unit. The reply, dated 25th May, stressed that
no decision had so far been taken to close the
Unit, and said that the current review would
be completed "later this summer, and will be given
very careful consideration".
In the event that the Unit did close, the reply says that the Trust
would "honour the spirit in which [charitable]
donations were made, as well as our legal obligations", and
suggests that any equipment bought from donations
for cancer patients would continue to
be used for such patients. The reply said that
whilst the building costs of the project came
roughly 50-50 from Macmillan and from the NHS, almost all running costs
at the Unit were now
met by the NHS. Donations received are now used to provide
"..equipment and facilities over and
above basic NHS provision".
Commenting, Steve Webb said:
"There is a huge strength of local feeling about this issue, and we will
be stressing this to
Mr. Morse on Friday. I have received lots of very moving
letters and e-mails from people who
know from first hand experience what a special place this is. I look to
the Trust to look creatively at ways of
keeping this vital service going, including the
possibility of a role for ongoing charitable funding to help meet
the costs of the Unit."
Read the letter from the NHS Trust by clicking on
the image of each page below, or click
here to read a text-only version:
 Click
here to read details of the massive response to my petition
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