Press release: Executive supports Woking Hospice

October 15, 2009 — admin
Woking Borough Council’s executive has decided to support Woking Hospice following the council meeting last night. A grant of nearly £60,000 was approved for the hospice to fund its home-based palliative-care nursing service.

The hospice on Hill View Road has been in discussion with the council about securing financial assistance since April as the effects of the recession bite into its fundraising ability. It recently suspended day centre services due to financial pressures.

Each year, Woking Hospice needs to raise around £2.6million to fund its end-of-life care but NHS Surrey gave only £423,000 to the charity for 2009/10 and future funding from the NHS looks bleak. The hospice estimates that it needs £300,000 by March 2010 to maintain its core services, which provide respite for families and dignity for patients.

Under proposals put forward to the executive, the council would provide £57,400 this year and will consider a similar amount annually until 2012/13 to fund home nursing services. This money would come initially from the Community Fund and subsequently from the Grants budget.

Conservative Leader of the Executive Cllr John Kingsbury said: “We provided £250,000 to set up Woking Hospice but since that time it has managed to raise enough funds without council help. But the recession has meant a big drop in donations and the amount of money it can raise.

“There are many competing calls on the council for money and we are already under a great deal of pressure but the benefits of the hospice’s work in the community are clear. It is vitally important that its work continues and the Conservative administration is determined to support this funding proposal.”

Jonathan Lord, the recently selected Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Woking said: “It is clear that Woking Hospice fulfils an essential role within our community.  I am delighted to support the Conservative administration’s efforts to help the hospice maintain its services during these tough economic times.”

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Caring for your carers

October 13, 2009 — admin
Woking Hospice

Woking Hospice

It’s a very tough time to be a charity. With the onset of recession comes a fall in donations and bequests and cuts in other sources of funding. In the case of Woking Hospice, the situation is now so serious that respite day centre services have been suspended (day centre medical services continue).

The Woking News and Mail has begun a campaign to try and encourage donations, which is a good start. The hospice is essentially a community facility – it gets a staggeringly small level of support from the NHS – and the financial solutions to its problems will be found within Woking rather than elsewhere.

Since April, Woking Hospice has been in talks with Woking Borough Council about financial support that the council can offer. While the council should not as a general rule be the bank of last resort, there are clearly some exception to this where the benefit to the borough is so overwhelming as to be reckless if ignored.

Woking Hospice is one such case and it is an institution of such value to Woking and its people that £60,000 to fund home-based palliative care is something that I believe the executive will support readily on Thursday evening. There are, however, one or two caveats borne out from the same economic circumstances that affect the hospice in the first instance.

Firstly, an organisation receiving a significant amount of money – in the case of the hospice more than £200,000 across three years – to fund its objectives (however unquestionably worthy) has a responsibility to taxpayers to engage in the process of reviewing its business. In this case, it shouldn’t be a condition but I would like to see Woking Hospice engage in this by bringing forward a business plan to demonstrate how during leaner times it can continue to fund its core services and how financial support can be best targetted to help it.

Secondly, the money for 2010/11 to 2012/13 needs to come out of the grants budget and currently the borough cannot afford to increase this. So we need to ask difficult questions about which other organisations will have to sacrifice money in order for the hospice to receive it.

I’m tempted to point out that the hospice needs £300,000 to maintain its core activities while Woking Borough Council gives nearly £400,000 a year to The Lightbox. But I’ve raised this question before to broad opprobrium so I won’t do so again.

What I will say is that we need to ensure the council’s resources are targetted on those that need them most.

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The people who matter

September 18, 2009 — simonashall

It’s easy to forget in the rough and tumble of life about the things that really make a difference. And often it’s the people with no political motivation who stand out.

I’m in awe of those who can offer their time, patience and skills to care for others; the dedication and selflessness they demonstrate puts life in context and the way it flows from them in the most difficult of times puts many of us to shame. My grandmother has needed constant care for 18 months and the brilliant people who provided that, during the end of life and aftermath of death today have been a source of support and reassurance for my mother.

I can’t thank them – and the people like them in the NHS, charitable and voluntary sectors - enough for their kindness and understanding. It’s simply priceless.

Woking Hospice is another example of a place that gives similar care and support to patients and families facing an end of life situation. It’s an organisation that we should be proud of and the people who work there, who without exception would baulk at the suggestion they were doing anything out of the ordinary, are people whose sense of calling we can all learn from. Any politician who makes a difference equal to our carers’ involvement with just one patient can indeed call themselves worthy of their office.

MacMillan Cancer Support and Marie Curie Cancer Care as well as the NHS are staffed and supported by people who understand dignity – something that really matters in our society.

Posted in Charity, Community. Tags: , , , . 2 Comments »
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