One of the most important local charities for those with friends and family members of need end of life care is St Francis Hospice.
While St Francis Hospice’s physical building lies just outside my Brentwood and Ongar constituency, its outreach work and amazing staff help families living across Brentwood, Ongar and the villages. These staff work with NHS employees in the community to help those who need end of life care, with 85% of their support involving caring for people in their own homes.
Some patients come into the hospice for care and to balance their medication before going home again. St Francis Hospice offers a team of 24-hour nurses who go out into the community as well as funding four nurses who can prescribe medication, thereby easing pressure on doctors in the community.
The hospice also acts as a palliative care training base for doctors from the Barking, Havering, and Redbridge NHS Trust and the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust. Young doctors do their training at the Hospice and then go back to work in hospitals and as General Practitioners.
All this costs money, and St Francis Hospice is on a constant fundraising mission to ensure it can recruit and retain staff who might otherwise find the pay better in the NHS system. I was very pleased to be able to meet some of the staff and the fundraising team when I visited the hospice recently to hear about their work and the desperate need for additional funding.
Funding bodies including Children in Need have provided financial support in the past to provide emotional and bereavement support for children who have lost parents and grandparents, or who are visiting family members in the hospice.
It was very clear to me that the level of holistic wrap-around care for patients and their families from all the staff at St Francis Hospice is very special as we, as a constituency and a community, should do all we can to support such a wonderful organisation. You can find out more about the work and fundraising activities run by the hospice here: https://www.sfh.org.uk/
