It supports over 400 local people and their families each year and is mostly funded by donations

Strathcarron’s Hospice at Home service is celebrating turning ten years old.

The hospice charity provides specialist palliative and end of life care in the community, which is free of charge to the people of Forth Valley and North Lanarkshire. 

It was initially launched in 2014 with support from The Big Lottery Fund for five years.

The grant ended in July 2019 and as there has never been a funding commitment for Hospice at Home from the NHS, this service, that supports over 400 local people and their families each year, is mostly funded by the generosity of the local community who bake, run, jump, as well as donate and buy in hospice charity shops to keep it running.

Strathcarron’s Hospice at Home service has been awarded the highest rating of Grade 6 and ‘excellent’ across all evaluation parameters inspected by the Care Inspectorate for the last five inspections.

Mags McCarthy, chief executive of Strathcarron Hospice, said: “Hospice at Home is a very special service, enabling people to be at home at end of life, as is their wish.  As part of a wider multi-disciplinary team within the hospice, we also work closely with external primary care teams, including district nurses, to provide this specialist care.

“As a community service, we are value for money, but we need funding to keep our service running. From the small donation you drop into one of our fundraising cans, to leaving a significant legacy in your will, everything you do to support Strathcarron, ensures your Hospice at Home service keeps going. We are incredibly grateful to all our amazing supporters.

“If Hospice at Home means something to you, we also strongly encourage you to participate in the current palliative care consultation to help shape the future of community care. If you can’t attend in person, you can complete the online survey which is open until 22 September”.  

Palliative and end of life care is physically and emotionally complex, and each person that Strathcarron Hospice at Home service supports has their needs centred at the heart of these conversations.

The nursing and health care assistant teams listen, care and respect people’s physical, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual needs. This holistic approach allows people to have choices, and positive perspectives to live the best quality of life possible, enabling them to die at home, as is their wish.  

Strathcarron Hospice has to raise £16,637 daily to provide all the specialist end of life care services to individuals and their families across its communities.  

Hospice at Home costs £474,000 per annum and saves an average of six NHS hospital bed days at £350 a day per patient. The cost to care for a Hospice at Home patient in their own home (based on an average six days) is £1,437. This breaks down to £239 per patient, per day.  

In the last Inspection, The Care Inspectorate interviewed family members and noted that “people are respected and listened to ensuring that their wishes and preferences were used to shape how they were to be supported.

The service was excellent at giving people time to talk and support, and to be empowered to discuss decisions about their end of life care, with one person saying: "they always asked what we wanted and had time to answer our questions".