A BURY MP has called for openness and transparency at Bury Hospice to be boosted with regular public meetings.

David Nuttall, who represents Bury North, is asking the hospice to hold them after more than 140 people attended a debate on its future.

At the meeting at St Anne’s Parish Hall in Tottington on last night residents questioned the hospice’s management on funding issues and recent redundancies.

After the meeting, Mr Nuttall said turnout at the meeting demonstrated a “clear need” for the hospice to show greater openness and transparency.

He said: “One way openness and transparency could be demonstrated to the people of Bury is for the hospice holding a regular meetings, if not at the very least, an annual public meeting.

“This would give the hospice an opportunity to explain how it has performed over the last 12 months and what its plans are for the year ahead, and I think this would be a step forward.”

Tuesday’s meeting was chaired by the Rector of Bury, Reverend Dr John Findon, with chief executive Jacqui Comber and new chairman Colin Greene representing the hospice.

In July, it was reported that the year-old £5.05 million facility in Rochdale Old Road was falling behind the £3 million a year needed to keep it running.

The following month, Bury’s Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) announced it would throw the hospice a £124,000 lifeline.

More than 6,500 people have now signed a Save Bury Hospice petition set up by Cllr James Frith, prospective parliamentary candidate for Bury North.

After the meeting, Cllr Frith said it was “disingenuous” to attack the hospice’s management when the real issue was the underfunding of Bury’s NHS services.

He added: “The Tory Government is still withholding £20 million a year from our town’s NHS services with no sign of a fair deal for NHS Bury.

“What is needed is a public summit involving experts from across Greater Manchester, NHS Bury, patient and staff representatives, members of the public and representatives from the hospice itself.

“We need a positive way forward for the hospice which includes the people of Bury being fairly informed of this under-funding of our NHS Bury health services.”

One condition of the CCG’s funding was that independent auditors could review the hospice’s governance arrangements, but this report has not yet been made public.

In July, whistleblowers revealed brand new bedrooms were lying empty and state-of-the-art clinic rooms being used for storage.

The following month, a week after CCG funding was announced, a number of redundancies were announced, including nurses and a complementary therapist.

Dr Kiran Patel, chairman for NHS Bury CCG, said: “The CCG’s non-recurrent financial allocation will help to maintain the vital services provided by the hospice until the end of the financial year.

“Historically, funding for the hospice has been awarded on a grant basis but in future we would like to see a formal contractual arrangement, in line with other service providers.

“We are also keen to support the hospice to be more open, transparent and publically accountable.”