A charity that has supported Wisbech hospital for over 70 years and spent hundreds of thousands on improvements at the site has announced it will close.
Friends of Wisbech Hospitals was set up in the mid-1950s and over the last 13 years alone has spent £1.7m to help patients and staff.
But this week, its chairman since 2012 Malcolm Bruce, announced "with regret" that the trustees decided to close the charity at their January meeting.
“The decision was not made lightly,” he said in a heartfelt Facebook post.
Mr Bruce explained the charity was set up in the mid-1950s to “provide the extras” that the then new NHS could not fund.
He added: “However, over the past two decades, we have been asked to finance more and more projects that would normally have been met from central government.
“The day-to-day management of the charity has increased dramatically over the past few years with myself and the treasurer spending a huge amount of our retirement time volunteering for the Friends.
“We had both given notice of our intention to retire from our roles. After lengthy discussion, no one is prepared to take on these positions.”
The post on Facebook also gave an insight into some of the administrative challenges the charity has faced given the current structure of the NHS.
Malcolm said: “Another major factor is the North Cambs Hospital organisation itself. In days gone by you had a single directorate for a hospital.
“Presently, there are six providers within the hospital complex which makes communication nearly impossible.”
Among the providers operating at the hospital are: Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust; Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust; the Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust; North West Anglia Foundation NHS Trust’ and Arthur Rank Hospice.
Matthew Winn, the Chief Executive of Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust and Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust, paid tribute to the charity’s work.
He said: "The Friends of the Wisbech Hospital have been passionate and wonderful supporters of the community hospital in Wisbech for over 70 years.
“It is down to their amazing fundraising and volunteering that so much has been invested into the community hospital.
“It is a very sad that the Friends will no longer be there, but we pass our huge thanks and affection to Friends past and present for everything they have done."
Friends of Wisbech Hospitals has agreed to fund requested projects up to the end of December 2025. The charity aims to dissolve completely by late Summer 2026.
The announcement about the charity’s closure comes the same week former health secretary Steve Barclay criticised health bosses, accusing them of “wasting the millions invested” in the Wisbech Community Diagnostic Centre (CDC).
The £2.1m facility at the site opened in 2023 to bring diagnostics services such as MRI and CT scanning facilities closer to patients.
Its concept aims to reduce travel times to hospitals and free up capacity at larger hospitals.
But the MP claims there have been “some months” where no patients have been treated at the centre at all.
A spokesperson for NHS Cambridgeshire & Peterborough said it has been working with various parties, including GPs, to get more patients seen at the Wisbech CDC.
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