A hospital spokesperson said the trust began purchasing the “excellent” and “very high quality” end-of-life care from Arthur Rank in 2017.
“On average, we have been able to access around six beds at Arthur Rank Hospice which has helped to alleviate inpatient bed pressures within the wider trust and has provided a better experience for those patients who were able to transfer to the hospice,” they said.
“At the start of this financial year, in order to maintain core services within a reduced budget, we undertook an affordability and value for money assessment of these additional beds.”
It will stop purchasing the beds from April. The charity has launched a fundraising campaign.
Arthur Rank provides care and support to more than 3,800 patients a year at the Cambridge hospice, the Alan Hudson Centre in Wisbech and in patients’ own homes.
It said it costs £14m a year to run, its contracted NHS services are budgeted at £8.1m and it raises nearly £6m a year through donations, legacies and fundraising activities.
Toby Porter, chief executive of Hospice UK said: “To hear of yet another hospice having to reduce services is devastating, especially when we know demand for the dedicated, specialist care provided by hospices is increasing.”
He said 16 hospices had already been forced to cut services and called for “a long-term solution to hospice funding” to give dying people the care they need.
