Representatives of the Louth hospice team who have helped make last year a record-breaking one in terms of patients supported.
FOR the growing community of East Lindsey, it is a case of “thanks a million” several times over as the flagship day hospice in Louth marks its second anniversary.
Run by Lincolnshire’s St Barnabas Hospice, the unit has propelled palliative care into a new era. It has brought an unprecedented amount of expertise under one roof to support thousands of people with life-limiting illnesses and their families.
Just two years on from opening its doors, St Barnabas is now celebrating the hospice’s birthday by achieving two major million-pound-plus milestones.
Not only has the St Barnabas investment topped more than £1.5m in the provision of end-of-life care support to people living across Louth, its coastal area and neighbouring communities such as Boston.
But the charity’s welfare and benefits team has also secured over £3.3m in previously unclaimed benefits for 1,900 patients and their carers. Its advisors have secured this by demystifying which allowances are potentially available, and guiding people through what can be a complex or stressful maze to make an application.
“With every month that goes by, we are getting busier and busier with increasing demand for the services we provide,” said hospice general manager Nicky Ingall.
“The past 12 months have built on our inaugural year of success for St Barnabas’ much-needed new venture here in the heart of the Louth community.
“It has also been a record-breaking one for the number of people St Barnabas has helped to live well when they are dying, as well as for the amount of investment that we have channelled locally into patient care.”
She added: “Bringing all our different services together in one building has enabled us to avoid duplication and wastage, so that every penny donated to St Barnabas goes even further.
“Since welcoming our first patients two years ago, the hospice has been a modern home not just to our existing services but to new ones as well, creating the launch pad for us to take the quality of care and support we provide to new heights.”
With an ageing and growing population, there are more and more people living in Lincolnshire with life-limiting illnesses – ranging from cancer, to lung and heart conditions, to dementia – requiring the range of personalised services that the St Barnabas team provides from its new base.
The unit is the headquarters for St Barnabas’s local Hospice at Home team, which supports people with advanced illnesses to be cared for in the familiar surroundings of their home and to die there if that is their wish. The team supported over 800 people in this way over the last two years.
Nicky added: “On behalf of everyone who has benefitted from our services, I would like to thank those who have contributed to our ongoing success – from fund-raisers in the community, to our first-class staff and volunteers.
“Their hard work has given our services an extra dimension and we are determined to build on this platform in the months and years to come, with more improvements and new initiatives to keep St Barnabas at the forefront of end-of-life across East Lindsey.”
To help the local Louth community share in the anniversary success, St Barnabas is staging two upcoming events – a Christmas Craft Fayre at the hospice on November 15, between 11am-2pm; and the popular Light up a Life service at Louth Methodist Church – 7th December 6pm.
The purpose-designed, two-story unit – leased long-term by St Barnabas from the Louth and District Hospice charity – boasts treatment rooms, quiet areas, a large lounge area and a clinical room for out-patient appointments. It also features four themed gardens with views over the open countryside.
The day hospice was built on a three-acre site donated by local farmer Frank Nicholson adjacent to Fanthorpe Farm, near the Fairfield Industrial Estate.
For any further information on how St Barnabas’ care services can be accessed in your area please call 01522 511566 or visit: www.stbarnabashospice.co.uk