Without an additional £600,000 a year, Prospect Hospice will be forced to help fewer local patients.

Prospect Hospice says it will no longer be able to support as many patients and families who desperately need its ‘outstanding’ specialist end-of-life care unless donations by the community increase by £600,000 – a 10% increase in the support they already receive.

It costs Prospect Hospice, a registered charity, around £7.5 million per year to provide the care that patients and families in Swindon and north east Wiltshire depend on, and three quarters of that sum – £5.5 million – comes from donations from the community. The remaining quarter comes from statutory sources such as the NHS.

Irene Watkins, chief executive of Prospect Hospice, says the combination of the pandemic and a long-standing freeze on statutory funding has severely affected the charity’s income.

“Like all charities, we saw a sharp decline in income from March 2020 as our shops closed and fundraising activities were cancelled. This had a huge impact on our income which is still to recover, but we also have two further challenges,” says Irene.

“Firstly, our NHS funding has not changed for the last nine years, so in real terms it is worth far less today than it was nine years ago. Secondly, despite this reduced income, our services have grown to meet increasing need in the community, with more people requiring our specialist care and support.

“This decline in funding and growth in services cannot continue. We have now reached the point where we know there are already people we are unable to help  and, unless we can raise the additional £600,000 a year, we will have no choice but to reduce the number of patients and families we can support even more. This is a distressing loss for those people in our community that desperately need our care and support.

“Because of our supporters in our community we are able to care for those that need us but without that support we won’t be able to help hundreds of people and their families every year.”

Nancy Heath, whose BBC Radio Wiltshire journalist husband Ashley died at Prospect Hospice’s inpatient unit on 25 January 2021, says the communities of Swindon and north east Wiltshire are extremely lucky to have Prospect Hospice.

“Ash got fabulous care – it meant I could be with him, but also have a break, knowing that he was well-cared for,” says Nancy.

“He was very keen that I should remain his wife, not his carer, and Prospect Hospice enabled that to happen.

“Prospect Hospice really focuses on the patient and family, rather than the illness. I found it incredibly comforting to have a nurse in the room who had done all this before and could reassure me. It was so important that Ashley was listened to and died in the way he wanted to. It’s amazing that a local charity can provide such fantastic care and do so without charging a penny.”

You can support your local hospice by setting up a monthly donation. Just £5 a month could pay for three home visits by a specialist or £10 a month could pay for a nurse’s shift on the inpatient unit. Click here to find out more.