NIGEL Hartley, chief executive of the Mountbatten hospice, writes: We all recognise that Mountbatten has been on a significant journey over the past few years. Getting our public reputation back on track, stabilising our finances and developing services to reach more people across our Island community has been our focus and our mark of success. Our work was rewarded with the highest possible accolade from the Care Quality Commission last year. We should all be proud of what we have achieved together with our Island community.

We are contacted regularly by other UK hospices who want to know how we are doing what we are doing, particularly as we work alongside a broader Health and Social Care Sector which is unquestionably in crisis and increasingly struggling and challenged. My belief is that our success is due to continuously focussing on our Island community and our developing needs. We have increased the number of those we are caring for by 50% over the past year and this is set to rise further. Our challenge is how we sustain and survive these demands.

Over the past 18 months we have been developing a partnership with Countess Mountbatten Hospice in Southampton. There are three key things to understand. The first is that we have been asked to help and support because we are good at what we do; the Island is leading the way on End of Life Care and Southampton will pay us for our leadership, advice and support; the second is that this partnership is not a ‘merger’ or a ‘take over’. We have been asked to lead this unique new partnership where both organisations will remain separate from each other as two distinct local charities with two sets of financial accounts. We also want to be clear that no-one on the Island will ever be expected to receive hospice care on the mainland; the third is that no money raised to support Mountbatten on the Isle of Wight will leave our Island to support another organisation.

Key to this partnership is that it will be led by us. Mountbatten will be in control of your care during the last years of life wherever you are being treated and cared for, influencing developments beyond our Island. As some of our local services are moving to the immediate mainland, I would much rather us manage and lead our own future at Mountbatten with the Island firmly at the centre of our plans.

During a number of recent meetings with our staff and volunteers to talk together about our plans, one overriding question has been evident. ‘How do we help our wider Island community understand that no Island money will ever go towards supporting the hospice in Southampton?’

A new partnership with another hospice will not be a threat to Mountbatten. What will threaten us more than anything will be if our Island community stop supporting us due to misunderstanding our developments. We remain thankful for the support of our local community and I cannot stress that we need your support now more than ever. Our message is a simple one; those of us who intend to live out our lives on this Island will need Mountbatten, so we must continue to support it or face dying and bereavement alone. We are outstanding at what we do because of your ongoing support and commitment. We could not have got to this place without you. Let’s be proud together of our Island hospice. We are an example of national excellence and seen as a leader; a real accolade for our remarkable Island.

I am happy to hear from anyone who has any questions or thoughts by e-mail at nigel.hartley@mountbatten.org.uk or by letter at Mountbatten Hospice, Halberry Lane, Newport, PO30 2ER.