Prospect Hospice has learned to live without walls during the pandemic

If you’re running a hospice during a pandemic, what do you do when most of your patients, their loved ones and others in the community can’t come into your hospice building anymore?

Simple, say the end-of-life care specialists at Prospect Hospice – you take the hospice out into the community instead.

The Covid-19 crisis hasn’t stopped the Wroughton provider from delivering end-of-life care to patients and their families and loved ones. It’s just mean that the hospice has been taking far more of its expert services out into the community, and into people’s own homes.

Chief executive Irene Watkins said the feedback she is getting from patients and families is that this new way of working is working very well indeed.

She said: “We’ve always known that Prospect Hospice is so much more than bricks and mortar.

“But this year has given us the opportunity to showcase that to the wonderful community that supports us.

“Covid-19 meant is was suddenly impossible to offer services like day therapy or family support at our Wroughton base. But by thinking out of the box, our colleagues soon devised new ways of supporting patients and families, whether in person in their homes or online.

“The phrase that I’ve begun to use if Prospect without walls. Because we are there, out in the community, where we now need to be.

“I’m so proud of how everyone has flexed to make sure that our community has been able to benefit from the expertise in specialist, end-of-life care which Prospect Hospice is well known for.”

Did you know?

Around 70 per cent of Prospect’s income comes from the donations and fundraising efforts of people who live or work in Swindon and its surrounding areas. This generosity that enables the hospice to provide expert clinical, emotional and practical support.