Annual Report 2020/2021

A message from our Chief Executive, Chris Wheway

This year has been a very difficult year for us all. It’s been the year of the pandemic and everything in our lives has been impacted on; our work, our home, personal life. It has been an extremely challenging year for us all at St Barnabas Hospice.

I’d really like to say thank you to all the people who have supported us throughout this last year. One of the most outstanding donations was the donation of PPE, which has enabled our staff and volunteers to stay safe and supported. Without the public’s support in this last year, we would not have survived. But we have, and we have continued to deliver the hospice approach to care throughout this very difficult and challenging year, so thank you.

The coming year is going to be about how we as an organisation live with the virus. It’s not going to go away; it’s going to be about how we cope and how we become more sustainable and resilient to working in this environment.

I look forward to the year ahead, working with our brilliant staff, volunteers and community, and I look forward to celebrating our 40 years of operation within Lincolnshire, which we really couldn’t have done without support from our community, staff and volunteers.

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Coronavirus and Care

Since the coronavirus outbreak began in early 2020, our teams have adapted to new and varied ways of working in order to carry on providing outstanding care to some of the most vulnerable people in Lincolnshire.

At short notice, we were able to deliver education to other healthcare providers on symptom control when caring for palliative patients. We also provided a 24-hour advice line for doctors, nurses, patients and families to call for any support they needed surrounding end-of-life care. Coaching, online chats and forums became the norm as we looked for new ways to support our staff.

The biggest challenge we faced in these difficult times was ensuring our Clinical teams could all keep in touch with each other remotely, as well as with patients and families. It was extremely important for us to maintain our outstanding levels of care. We used technology to our advantage and held virtual consultations for many patients and families to let them know we were still there. Our occupational therapists and physiotherapists were also able to do virtual exercise sessions with patients who were shielding. Day Therapy sessions went virtual too, with the temporary closure of all hospice buildings except the two Inpatient Units.

Throughout the pandemic, the teams in our Lincoln Inpatient Unit and Grantham Hospice in the Hospital have continued to work on the front line delivering round-the-clock, specialist care to people who are terminally ill. They have embraced the layers of PPE, supported each other with last minute shift changes and still delivered the same outstanding care in the most difficult of circumstances.

Looking to the future, we want to give more people dignified and compassionate care when they require it and where they ask for it. Our outstanding care will support many more Lincolnshire residents living with a life-limiting or terminal illness and we remain committed to working in partnership with others to achieve this aim.

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Our Achievements

Throughout the pandemic St Barnabas staff have been remarkably resilient and adaptive, and have been able to keep our excellent care and support operational and available.

The Clinical teams quickly adapted to the constraints imposed by the pandemic, developing new ways of working to continue supporting the delivery of outstanding hospice care to the people of Lincolnshire.

Our Wellbeing and Welfare teams, aided by trained volunteers, have maintained their valuable support and developed new services. These include a much-needed bereavement helpline and virtual bereavement groups, making use of innovation and technology to continue the reach of support and advice.

After receiving ‘world class’ or ‘outstanding’ in all areas of the Best Companies staff survey, we ranked the 15^th best charity to work for in the UK, the 49^th best company to work for in the Midlands, and the 89^th best large company to work for in the UK.

Our Light up a Life campaign turned completely digital, using video to live stream the Torchlight Procession to supporters across the county. It surpassed all expectation and brought in our best ever fundraising amount from a Light up a Life campaign – £73,000.

The award-winning Donation Drive-Thru was launched when shops reopened, enabling supporters to safely donate their items at our Central Warehouse in a designated time slot, with minimum contact with anyone. This was a huge success, generating over 4,000 bags and boxes of donations in the first two weeks, over 50 tonnes of items in the first month, and over 600 bookings in the first four months.

We ran the summer raffle differently, showcasing it to supporters as a way to look to the future and be hopeful. This produced our best ever raffle income of just over £70,000. Fresh off the back of the summer raffle’s success, we ran a winter raffle and brought in another £70,000.

We were successful enough to win six awards this financial year, including Lincolnshire Live’s Business in the Face of Adversity award and an East Midlands Charity Award.

We switched to remote working, meaning that all our administrative staff were able to work from home with software such as Microsoft Teams and Office 365, when home working was compulsory. This has been hugely successful and has seen many staff members changing their contracts permanently to either home working or more flexible working.

Lisa's Story

“These last few months have felt like I have been walking down a long, lonely road. I’ve felt very, very low. Really, it’s been the nurses from St Barnabas that have kept me going.

“It was my heart nurse at the hospital who suggested we get in touch with St Barnabas. I thought it was a mad idea – I wasn’t dying tomorrow, how could they help me? But these special people have become my carers, my friends, my lifeline.

Zoe, my physiotherapist, has given me back mobility I never thought I’d have again. When Zoe came out to see me, she looked round the house and then I took her down the stables to meet my horses. I’ve always kept horses and over the last few months they’ve become so precious to me, I can go and see them and forget about things for a while.

“Zoe asked, “What do you want to achieve?” I told her I hadn’t been able to ride, it had been 18 months since I’d been able to get on my old horse, Monty (and don’t tell the others, but he’s my favourite!). Zoe went away and worked up a physio plan just for me, to give me the strength to get back in the saddle. Three weeks later (with help) I was able to sit on Monty once more.

“St Barnabas’ team have all been utterly dedicated to me – and I can say, hand on (dodgy) heart, that it is their care that has kept me going.”

Read Lisa's story