Melanie Stone

The recent rising levels of infection across our area have resulted in the need for additional beds in all our hospitals. To assist with this demand, Oakhaven in partnership with West Hants CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group) will be opening four additional bedrooms to patients who are Covid negative and medically fit for discharge from acute hospitals, but who still require additional support.

Andrew Ryde, Chief Executive said ‘the last 12 months has been incredibly difficult and the fight goes on. There is light at the end of the tunnel with the vaccination programme being rolled out but there are a few more months until the pressure is reduced. It is essential that we support our community and our NHS colleagues during this time and by opening these beds we are helping to relieve some of the pressure currently faced by Hospitals.’

Throughout the Covid-19 pandemic Oakhaven Hospice has worked hard to ensure that those within our community facing the end of life continue to receive our specialist support. Our 8 bedded unit has remained open, with Doctors, nurses and health care assistants adapting to the challenges of Covid and worked to find new ways of delivering care. Over the winter period capacity had already been increased to 10 beds but with this latest agreement we will now be providing 14 beds.

With restrictions on travel and limits placed on visiting times, many under our care have chosen to receive support at home surrounded by their families. Our community teams are working tirelessly to ensure that they are cared for, pain free and comfortable throughout their remaining days. Their expertise brings the specialist hospice care into people’s homes creating over 300 hospice beds across our community at any one time.

In order to manage the additional rooms at the Hospice, there will be an increased need for staff within the in-patient unit. Donna Wilkins, Director of People Services said ‘the level of support we have received has been phenomenal from our current staff, our wonderful volunteers, our ex colleagues as well as from qualified nurses who have picked up our plea on social media. So many people have expressed their desire to help, either with extra hours, volunteering, returning to work, or taking on additional duties to help the Hospice throughout this time. It is only with this support that we have been able to increase our bedded care.”

The hospice has faced a very challenging time during the pandemic with many of its income streams severely cut back in particular the closing of its shops during the lockdowns. Every month the hospice shops are closed is a loss of approximately £100,000 of income. In addition to this our inability to hold events and other fundraising initiatives has significantly cut back its income. The hospice is extremely grateful for the support the community shows in helping it provide its services.”

This month, global firm INEOS has donated £10,000 to Oakhaven Hospice through the international INEOS Community Fund.

This grant will support the vital work of the hospice as it finds new working methods to provide support and guidance to people across its local community dealing with end of life issues.

Oakhaven Hospice provides specialist palliative care and support for over 250 patients, carers and families at any one point across the New Forest. The Hospice’s mission is to meet the end of life needs of its community while aspiring to make every moment matter by promoting quality of life for people with life-limiting conditions and their families. As part of a wide range of care services, the hospice provides traditional support, social interaction, physiotherapy, complementary therapy, as well as counselling and bereavement services.

The grant will be used by Oakhaven Hospice to fund its vital work as it finds new ways of operating its service in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis. It will fund a new “Stay Connected” telephone support line to allow Hospice staff to deliver care and expertise, in line with social distancing requirements. Operated by a Registered General Nurse this service is an essential response to the Covid-19 pandemic and allows Oakhaven to support their community more than ever during these difficult times.

Oakhaven Hospice Chief Executive, Andrew Ryde, said:  “We are delighted to have received this support from the INEOS Community Fund, which has come at a pivotal moment as we work to evolve our services to best support our community to ensure that we make a real difference to people’s lives and help make every moment matter.”

The £1m INEOS Community Fund was established by INEOS Chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe in March 2020 in tandem with the company’s Covid-19 “Hands On” campaign, which set up new production lines to provide millions of bottles of free hand sanitiser each month to hospitals and frontline healthcare.

The Community fund enables INEOS sites across the world to support the charitable organisations doing vital work in their local communities at this particularly difficult time.

The INEOS Community Fund representative from the Lyndhurst office, Nathan Moore, said:  “We were delighted to be able to help Oakhaven Hospice as they adapt to these very challenging COVID times.  Their new Stay Connected Helpline will allow them to continue their brilliant work of providing support to our local community”.

More information on the work of Oakhaven Hospice  and details on how you can support it can be found via its website:https://www.oakhavenhospice.co.uk/

On Wednesday 2nd December all of the Oakhaven Hospice shops will be reopening, each shop will be open from 10am to 4.30pm, Monday to Saturday, and will have social distancing measures in place to safeguard customers, volunteers and staff.

The Oakhaven Shops team ask that everyone kindly respects the new social distancing instructions in each shop. Payment by card will be the preferred method of payment and since the team can no longer reuse plastic carrier bags, it would be advisable to bring your own bags for your purchases.

Where possible all donations will now be accepted between 10am and 4pm Monday to Saturday at our Outlet centre located at Ampress park, alternatively please call our High Street branches you will be taking small/single items for donation.

To donate items of furniture, please send photos to warehouse@oakhavenretail.co.uk.
Furniture needs to meet certain criteria which the team will explain when responding to your messages and depending on space within the shop they may not be able to receive the items immediately.

Please note that due to health and safety regulations the following items of furniture and furnishings cannot be accepted: computers, duvets and pillows, gas appliances, white electrical goods, upholstered furniture without a fire label or no longer in a clean and sellable condition.

For further enquiries about the Oakhaven Hospice Shops, contact Ann Newton on ann.newton@oakhavenretail.co.uk.

The 7th to 13th October 2019 is Hospice Care week. “Hospice Care Week is our chance to celebrate the amazing work across the UK of more than 200 hospices, who provide help, support and care to over 200,000 patients, carers and families every year.” (Hospice UK, 2019)

I am passionate about hospice care and will continually promote their work because I have seen first-hand how it can make such a huge difference to those whom they support. My story is fairly unique in that I had a long nursing career specialising in palliative care, much of that spent working in hospices but I am now in the situation whereby I am a patient in the palliative stage of my disease. I worked for many years as a Palliative Care Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) in the community for St Margaret’s Hospice but took ill health retirement a few years ago because my ovarian cancer recurred and I am now living with advanced, metastatic disease which means my cancer has spread to other parts of my body.

About a year ago I was referred to my local hospice, Oakhaven, for counselling. I felt a huge sense of relief to be referred because I knew that I would be able to access the most amazing support and resources. Hospices are very much about helping people affected by a progressive and life limiting disease to live their best life whether that be patients or their families. I remember the anxiety and fear that a hospice referral created in patients under my care as a Palliative Care CNS but once they understood what it was and what it meant; they felt that same relief as I did myself as a patient.

When most people think of hospice care they think of a building in which people are admitted for end of life care. During my nursing career I heard so many times from patients and their families that they thought the hospice was a place to die but this is only a tiny part of the specialist care that a hospice provides. Of course there are patients who die in a hospice but most of the work they do is about promoting life and living at home which is what I am focusing on today. The way in which they do this is through alleviating distressing symptoms; listening to difficulties that arise and helping to find solutions – where appropriate; giving advice and signposting to services to provide support at home; providing specialist palliative care in the community; providing support to loved ones; offering outpatient services such as day care or clinic appointments; providing physiotherapy and occupational therapy services; acting as an advocate for those needing it; providing peer support; just being there at the end of the phone on bad days, and so much more. Hospice services are very much about providing the care and support that each individual person needs and that can differ greatly.

Most of the support that patients and their families receive is in their own homes but there are occasions when admission to a hospice in-patient unit is appropriate. Most admissions to a unit are to alleviate very complex symptoms that are incredibly difficult to manage at home because of the need for continual assessment and adjustment of treatment. Once symptoms become more stable most patients will go back home. It wouldn’t be unusual for a patient to have several admissions throughout the palliative phase of their disease but the goal will always be to stabilise them in order for them to continue living the best life they can at home. Whether patients are admitted for specialist palliative care or end of life care, they will find themselves in a place where there is such attention to detail, kindness, respect and love that it feels like an escape from the world. I know when I need more support that the local hospice will be a sanctuary for me and my family whether the support is via community services or in-patient. So this week I salute all hospices and I urge everyone to support your local hospice because without them I know life for many would be unbearable.

Diane Evans-Wood
1st October, 2019