A YORK hospice has launched a public consultation over its future direction.

St Leonard's Hospice says it is asking the public what they think the future of hospice care should look like, as it explores a possible community outreach scheme.

It has launched a survey and is also consulting staff, volunteers, patients, families, referrers and healthcare professionals to establish the needs of the community.

A spokeswoman said the hospice wanted to learn where people who needed it the most were, and how it could use its skills and resources to care for as many people as possible.

"St Leonard’s Hospice is asking the public how it should best deliver day care support services to the community, as part of its drive to bring hospice support to more people," she said.

"It will use the findings to work with its partners in the local health, social and voluntary care sectors to address the needs of people and work to fill any gaps in support."

The hospice in Tadcaster Road, Dringhouses, has been providing care and support for terminally ill people, and people with life limiting illnesses, for more than 35 years.

The care it provides is free but it needs to raise £5.8 million a year to pay for it.

Chief Executive Emma Johnson said that since the pandemic, the landscape and the needs of the community had changed.

“We paused our Sunflower Centre day care service during the pandemic and we now want to move forward with a new, fresh, more responsive and accessible service which meets the needs of more people," she said.

"We really want to reach out to more people in our communities, far and wide, especially those who cannot travel to us here at the hospice site.

“We know it’s not just patients who need support, it is their families and carers too. So we’re asking about the need for more carers support as we know this is something people want more of.

“Our teams changed their focus during the pandemic, offering more care to people at home and as a result we expanded our Hospice@Home service.

"This service remains extremely popular for people who wish to stay at home and, alongside our bereavement support service, is our area of greatest growth. 

"We want to continue to provide in patient care and bereavement support for families and grow our Hospice@Home and telephone support line (Single Point of Coordination) service.

"But we also want to reach out to people in the community who have previously not felt able to access our services, or simply haven’t known what we do,” said Emma.

To respond to the survey, which is open until January 8, go to : Sunflower Outreach - St Leonard's Hospice (stleonardshospice.org.uk)

To register for one of the St Leonard’s future focus groups, email outreach@stleonardshospice.nhs.uk