Terminally ill patients across the Vale are to benefit from a new service to allow them to be cared for at home without the usual delays in admin.

Weldmar has long offered people with terminal conditions nursing in their own homes. Over 80 per cent of its services are carried out outside the hospice in Dorchester. However care packages have been subject to delays while a team of experts decides the best protocols – delays the hospice describes as ‘unacceptable’.

A growing need for these services has put pressure on the hospice to raise the extra money it takes to allow people to be where they are most comfortable in their final days.

Weldmar describes the move towards better, faster care at home as its biggest ever development in patient care. Now Weldmar is asking for donations big and small to help fund the new service and a team of health care assistants. People can choose to donate any amount, from £24.95 for a referrals coordinator to work quickly across clinical services to provide a Weldmar at Home care package for the same day – without the current delay – to £1,038.84 for a carer to provide hands on care and support for a patient for a whole week in their own home.

Individualised care packages are often needed, however there is often a shortage of carers available to provide a reliable and consistent service at short notice. Last year alone 46 per cent of Weldmar patients wanted this type of care – an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.

Caroline Sweetland, Director of Nursing at Weldmar Hospicecare, said: “When patients are living with a terminal diagnosis, they need the reassurance that no matter where or how they want to receive care and support, it will be available. Patients often require rapid specialist assessments and appropriate care packages being implemented within hours. For some patients this has been taking days, or even weeks, which just simply is not acceptable.”

“The covid-19 pandemic has made this even worse. Many of our patients don’t have the time to wait for a full package of care to be in place. In the meantime, if their health deteriorates rapidly, they are admitted to hospital instead of being able to stay in their own home. This can hopefully be avoided if an appropriate and necessary care package can be put in place quickly.”

Donations can be made at weld-hospice.org.uk.

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