The future of the Southampton Daisy Bus – a vital transport lifeline for Isle of Wight cancer patients – is at risk and could cease to exist within the next 2 weeks, prompting a joint campaign by Island Echo and the Isle of Wight Observer to save the service.
The Daisy Bus provides free travel between the Red Jet terminal in Southampton and University Hospital Southampton (Southampton General) for Islanders undergoing cancer treatment, including chemotherapy and radiotherapy. It plays a crucial role in reducing the physical and emotional strain of accessing mainland care.
For many patients, the journey to hospital is already challenging. The Daisy Bus has helped ease that burden by offering a dedicated, reliable and compassionate link between ferry and hospital.
News that the service is set to end on 20th August, due to funding cuts from the States of Jersey, broke last Friday, as previously reported by Island Echo.
The dire situation has prompted Richard Quigley MP (Isle of Wight West) to hold urgent discussions with stakeholders, including Wessex Cancer Support, the Isle of Wight NHS Trust and University Hospital Southampton, with the aim of finding a sustainable solution.
Richard has said:
“The first step is understanding how the service is delivered and funded. Once we’ve established that, we can look at all options open to us and ideally keep the service running”.
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Island Echo and the Isle of Wight Observer have come together in a shared commitment to raise awareness of the issue and support efforts to secure a long-term future for the service. Both news outlets are using their platforms to inform the public, encourage support and hold those in power to account.
Richard has added:
“The local media’s commitment to helping with any campaign that’s needed is invaluable”.
Darren Toogood, Editor of Island Echo, has said:
“Too many Islanders already face a tough enough time accessing mainland healthcare, and the Daisy Bus has been a crucial part of making that journey more bearable.
“Island Echo is proud to be working alongside the Isle of Wight Observer to help protect this vital service. Our local media may be competitors, but when it comes to supporting the Island community, as locally owned, independent publications – by Islanders, for Islanders – we stand together.”
Further updates will be provided as discussions progress and options for continuing the service are explored.
The Portsmouth Daisy Bus, which connects patients to Queen Alexandra Hospital, will continue operating.
This service should be funded by the NHS / GOVERNMENT
All islanders pay tax etc just like mainland persons,it is not
our fault the island only has 1 hospital that does not cater for
all medical needs.
Believe me, not all Islanders pay tax
All this talk , but no mention of how much the funding shortages would cost ?
Or to set up a community funding?
and what happened to the donations collected on the bus ?!
This is a necessity for Islanders. Suffering from any cancer is mentally hard and by taking away this essential service it just makes the trauma worse. There must be some way of saving the service. Come on Mr. Quigley step up to the mark.
Why doesn’t quigley offer up some of his £90,000 plus salary as a donation to help. He won’t of course. If he did donate something it would encourage others to step up too.
Great idea, but unfortunately politicians take off
people, they don’t give.
The comments on this report reflect the attitude people have generally in this country, ie everyone thinks that every service should be funded and immediately starts slating others for not doing so. The current government inherited a broken system which will not be fixed overnight. In the meantime, if we want services like the Daisy bus to continue, we may need to find ways of funding it. But that will not be achieved by people sitting on their hands and saying the “NHS should pay” or the MP should use some of his salary to contribute. Charity begins at home and that means people looking to themselves first which will then hopefully encourage others to follow suit. Hopefully, we shall one day have a healthy NHS again and these services will be centrally funded but, in the meantime, bear in mind who elected the government who spent 14 years bleeding our public services dry.
Rubbish.
This Government claimed to have inherited a
£20 Billion blackhole, they then penalised pensioners
by taking away their winter fuel money.
Over a year later they now claim to have a £50 Billion
blackhole.
WHY!
Over the years Labour chancellors have never been
any good, the Tories have always made the country
prosper.
We need a chancellor like Norman Lamont, he was very
successful.
Also I imagine the money is being spent on huge
hotel bills all around the country, say no more!
Enough is Enough
yeah get with it marcus- the tories inherited a broken uk from the 1970’s labour govt, the next govt blamed the previous one and now labour are blaming the tories
if you cannot see that all politicians are liars by default, then you are more gullible than people think