CRASH Helps: Ashgate Hospicecare

Ashgate Hospicecare

Ashgate Hospicecare provides specialist palliative and end of life care to people who have a progressive illness which is not curable. They also support families both practically and emotionally whilst they care for their loved ones following a bereavement.

Improving privacy

Ashgate Hospicecare has always provided patients with the highest level of care, within comfortable and friendly surroundings. The management team felt that their provision could be further improved by updating their ground floor area to give patients their own modern, private rooms as opposed to providing care from the existing shared wards.

Tina Croley from Ashgate Hospicecare said: “We approached CRASH to see if they would be willing to support our plans to transform our ground floor space. At that time patients were cared for in three-bed wards with shared bathrooms. Whilst still comfortable, the wards could often be noisy and didn’t offer a great deal of privacy.

“At this time in a person’s life, values such as privacy are more important than ever. Not only in terms of improving their comfort and quality of life, but also in helping them to maintain dignity and make the most of the precious time they have with loved ones.

“Thankfully CRASH recognised the benefits these changes would make to patients and their families, and agreed to support the project.”

The transformation

CRASH delivered a clever re-design of the hospice transforming the once busy, ground floor bays into nine individual spacious bedrooms all with access to their own external terrace.

Tina continued, “It’s the simple things that really make a difference to people receiving palliative and end of life care, and thanks to CRASH, patients now have the privacy they need and deserve at such a difficult time. To be able to rest in a peaceful and tranquil space, to have private conversations with loved ones, to be close to them day and night and to be able to enjoy a beautiful, comfortable environment means everything to those that we care for. It’s equally as important for their families too, who are now able to spend private time with their loved ones when they are dying. At this moment, privacy and being able to express their grief and say good-bye is so important."

“Since the effects of Covid-19 have taken hold, the private rooms have also meant that we have been able to continue to allow patients to have visitors and spend precious time with their loved ones – something that would have been more difficult to organise on the shared wards."

“Without the knowledge and support of CRASH and patrons such as British Gypsum, the re-development of the hospice would not have gone ahead. They have made an immeasurable difference to our patients, their families and to the care we are able to provide.”