Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice to build new facility in south Glasgow
24 March 2011
Glasgow’s Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice (PPWH) has unveiled plans to build a brand-new facility, enabling it to provide young people with life limiting illness in the West of Scotland with much needed services.
The hospice, which is currently located in Carlton Place in Glasgow city centre, provides specialist palliative care for people with life-limiting illnesses and support for their families and carers.
The new development, which is anticipated will open in 2016 will address gaps in the provision of specialist care for young people in Glasgow and beyond who are suffering from cancer and other life-limiting illnesses.
The project will be managed by the Glasgow office of Davis Langdon and it is anticipated that a major architectural competition will be staged to develop detailed designs for the new hospice. Property consultant Ryden has been appointed as part of the project team to identify suitable sites for the new build.
Ryden’s Glasgow office is currently seeking a suitable site for the hospice in South Glasgow, which willprovide greatly-improved facilities suitable for all ages to include inpatient unit with all single rooms, enhanced outpatient support and a range of private indoor and outdoor spaces for patients and their visitors.
Rhona Baillie, Chief Executive of The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice, said: “This development will be a huge step forward in the provision of palliative care services to Glaswegians, and in particular will address the specific gap in provision of care for the young people who are lost in transition when moving between children's and adult’s health services.
Since its inception in the 1980’s The Prince & Princess of Wales Hospice’s clinical services have grown from an original volunteer led telephone support line to the development of day services in 1986, outpatient care and home based services in 1987, progressing to an inpatient unit in 1989. To date the Hospice services and its buildings have grown in response to need and opportunity. It’s an unfortunate fact that the demand for our services is increasing all the time and we’re soon going to be constrained in our current site.
The hospice team respond to 1000 new referrals every year of patients and families who have often had a harrowing journey and the hospice provides a peaceful haven where they can discuss their innermost fears while having their pain and symptoms managed. Services are free of charge, are delivered by a highly skilled multidisciplinary team and are currently offered to adults aged 18 and above.
“However, it’s widely recognised within our profession that there is a growing requirement for services directly aimed at young people age 15-25. Currently,the increasing numbers of young people who are referred to the hospiceare sharing facilities at Carlton Place with older patients and whilst there are some advantages to this, it’s long been our ambition that we should provide discrete, specialist areas for each group.”
The plans are in keeping with the recommendations of the government document Living and Dying Well, Building on Progress (2011) which clearly states that Care for adolescents and young people should be available as close to home as possible – and within a young person’s home, should this be their request.
Rhona Baillie added: “We’ve outlined our plan to Greater Glasgow & Clyde Health Board and will be working closely with them as we develop more detailed proposals to ensure that the new hospice provides the most effective service to Glasgow in the years ahead.”
The Hospice will be announcing details of a major fundraising campaign to support the establishment of the new facility, which will be part-funded by the sale of the existing Carlton Place facility. The capital appeal will be in addition to the £2.8 m the Hospice require to fundraise this year to keep their doors open.
In 2010 Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, Nicola Sturgeon MSP, visited the PPWH’s facilities to congratulate the Hospice’s staff on receiving a glowing report which graded the Hospice the highest grades possible of all 6’sfollowing an inspection from the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care.
