Due to the current circumstances around the global Coronavirus outbreak, we have taken the decision to close some of our services temporarily and restrict visiting to essential visitors only.
We are limiting visitors to two nominated people per patient. In line with UK Government recommendations, social distancing will be encouraged and if these visitors have either a new continuous cough or a high temperature of 37.8 degrees centigrade or higher, they will not be allowed into the Hospice.
Other services
Our training and education service, Hospice in your Care Home, is no longer visiting care homes but the Hospice will offer support to care home staff over the telephone. Some staff from this team will be redeployed to other clinical areas as required.
The Oak Centre day service has closed as a precautionary measure.
Some bereavement support and counselling will be offered to clients over the telephone. All but essential complementary therapy sessions have been suspended.
These have not been easy decisions to make as we know many people rely on these services but we feel it is the right thing to do given the current situation.
Coronavirus seems to be affecting most those who have weakened immune systems, older people, and those with long-term and incurable, progressive illnesses. It is important that we take all reasonable steps to protect the wellbeing of patients, as well as our staff and volunteers.
The steps will continue to be reviewed with the aim of restoring services back to normal as soon as it is safe to do so.
We are making essential visits to patients in the community. We are telephoning all patients before appointments to check that they do not have Coronavirus or the symptoms. For patients we cannot visit we are offering telephone appointments.
Fundraising
Our fundraising events remain unaffected at this moment although seven people were planning on running the London Marathon for the hospice which has now been postponed. We will be speaking to those participants about their options in the next few days.
Shops
All of our shops currently remain open and will do their best to remain open. However, they are run entirely by volunteers and therefore we expect there will be times when our shops cannot open.
We anticipate there will be a substantial impact on our finances and would ask local people to continue supporting the Hospice however possible at this challenging time.
We will post updates on our website www.wlh.org.uk and on our social media accounts as soon as is practical.
Thank You
We would like to thank local people for their patience and understanding at this challenging time. It is also important to thank our volunteers, many of whom continue to carry out their essential roles.