Latest Developments
Service Enhancements
St Mary’s Hospice is entering an exciting new phase in its development. We are creating new and interesting spaces in the hospice building and gardens to allow in-patients and those attending day care and therapy sessions to enjoy the benefits of our wonderful site to the full. Those developments are to be funded with capital funds from the department of Health.
We shall soon start to construct a sun room/orangery and patio areas to ‘bring the outside in' so that patients and visitors can benefit from the beauty of our gardens and appreciate sea views in a way that is not possible now. With the valued assistance of grants from the Department of Health and others, this will be significant project undertaken by local contractors. We anticipate that all should be complete by the end of the year.
In addition to these works to enhance the experience of those who visit us, we are planning to significantly enhance our service provision by augmenting our community nursing activities to cater for the increasing number of people for whom the home is the preferred place of care. St Mary’s nurses with their specialist palliative care expertise will work in the hospice and in the community alongside their medical and other colleagues to ensure coordinated care is available wherever and whenever it is needed. The service has benefited from the generosity of one local benefactor who wishes to remain anonymous, and of another who has kindly provided vehicles for our use. In addition, Alan Myerscough Limited have made a car available.
Our ability to continue to develop services in this way is to a large extent dependent on the willingness of the community to support us with funds for current expenses – about £2million a year is needed. Next year will see a major fundraising campaign to raise awareness of and support for St Mary’s nurses as we approach our 20th year in 2009. There will be opportunities to ‘sponsor a nurse’, and for major donors to be identified with St Mary’s. We appreciate your interest and look forward to your contribution as the campaign unfolds.
