Expansion will extend hospice's care

The charity, which cares for families in Shropshire and Mid Wales living with an incurable illness, now cares for four out of five patients in their homes rather than on its wards, with more people being looked after for longer, and with a greater range of conditions and more complex needs.

Its response is to expand its two hospice sites in Telford and Shrewsbury so they offer more services to people who need its care but are not staying overnight.

And the community is being asked to show its support by continuing to donate and fundraise in support of the plans.

Planners have approved proposals at Apley Castle, Telford, which will extend the building, enhancing visitor and communal spaces, and allow a larger therapy area for day patients. Some work to add more capacity is already taking place now.

Meanwhile, at Bicton, Shrewsbury, the charity has approval for a new building to house therapy suites, treatment rooms, visitor facilities, learning resources and rehabilitation services.

The schemes at Telford and Shrewsbury are jointly part of the hospice’s ‘Living Well’ concept – where patient care and support extends well beyond wards and inpatient services, enabling and supporting people to live as well as they can within the constraints of a terminal illness.

Chairman of the charity’s board of trustees, Tony Cordery, said: “This will be the largest single investment we’ve made since we built our Telford hospice.

“Since then, we’ve cared for more than 30,000 people and their families and have seen their needs change and grow.

“Our services today are so much more community based and this will only be more so in future. We need to ready for that so we have developed our Living Well plans; we need to be clear that we are there to support people here and at home.”

Detailed design work and development costs are being worked up so the charity knows the precise size of the fundraising challenge it has ahead, with its board of trustees due to meet again later in the year to confirm the proposals. With detailed designs and costings in place, the board will meet again in October to agree its approach to funding the work.

Mr Cordery added: “We take nothing for granted and know that we have to raise in some way all of the money we want to spend. We know the high regard in which we’re held locally by all of our supporters, all of whom are tremendously generous to us all of the time and for which we’re very grateful.

“We are proud of the service we provide to the community and it is for them we are doing all of this. Ultimately, this is their project and while we will be looking at additional funding from trusts and foundations, I hope the community will support us in delivering it.”