More patient care through merger
- the first six months
Rising numbers of people living longer with life-threatening illness is one of the principal challenges facing society in general and was the most compelling reason for our recent merger to form Iain Rennie Grove House Hospice Care (IRGH).
Six months since merger, we have made progress in two main areas: increasing patient care and reducing costs.
IRGH Acting Chief Executive Mark Lister explains: “Combining the best of both hospices has meant we can offer a wider range of care and choice to more patients and families.
“Extending the Iain Rennie model of 24/7 hospice at home care into St Albans and Harpenden has meant more families have had access to round-the-clock care and support, making the choice to stay at home a reality for an additional 200 patients to date.
“We have also been able to grow our Family Support Service: as IRGH we can provide support tailored even more specifically to an individual's needs. Now we have nearly 40 bereavement support volunteers providing one-to-one support in patients' homes; a team of volunteer counsellors based at Grove House; social support groups for bereaved carers and siblings of our paediatric patients; and our own spiritual care service.
“Several Bucks-based families have already accessed the counselling team in St Albans , and we aim to broaden this service across Bucks to give every family the same choice and range of support.”
We have also made significant cost savings through merging: “By starting to combine office teams we have been able to reduce HR, finance and support services costs to yield over £60k savings per year – sufficient saving to cover the costs of a nurse and physiotherapist,” added Mark.
Local support for local care
We rely more than ever on the generosity of the local community, as NHS funding is not increasing in line with rising patient numbers. Mark continues: “We receive less than half the UK average given to hospices, so we rely entirely on our dedicated supporters to fund the growth in our service.”
Supporters can choose where their donation is spent – ensuring their contribution will fund vital hospice care in their local area, for example by ‘sponsoring' a nurse in their own locality. “People might wish to ear-mark their donation for day hospice care for Hemel Hempstead patients – or hospice at home care in Bucks,” explains Mark. “It's important that supporters have a say in where their money is spent; we're very aware that people have strong emotional connections with the hospice care delivered right in the heart of their community, so we want to reassure people that we're still about local support for local families.
“As we rely on fundraising and retail income from our charity shops for over 85% of our care costs, maximising local support is crucial. The good news is our increased efficiency as a combined team means even more money goes straight to funding clinicians to support patients and families locally.”
Challenges ahead
The demand for the free service IRGH offers is constantly growing as Mark explains: “Largely due to our ageing population in the UK , 20% more people will reach the end of life in 2030 compared with 2010. Also the number of cancer survivors increases 3% each year and will almost double by 2030.”
In addition to supporting people at the end of life, Iain Rennie Grove House helps people who are living long-term with cancer.
“We are caring for more patients from diagnosis and into remission through our nurse clinic, Cancer The Next Step programme and Canceri information service - as well as in Day Hospice or at home,” Mark said.
“We also need to offer more care to people with conditions other than cancer who are currently missing out on hospice care,” he added.
“So we face some serious challenges, not least an extremely tough economic climate, which makes fundraising more difficult for all charities. Thanks to an incredibly generous local community we have achieved a huge amount so far. But we need every possible pound we can get from each local community to maintain and increase our care for patients and families.”
Go to the IRHH website |
Go to the Grove House website |
