Our preparations to be ready for the future of hospice care have been approved by planners in Telford.

We want to add to facilities at our Telford and Shrewsbury bases so they complement much better our community-based services; eight out of ten patients cared for by us are now looked after in their own homes.

Planners at Telford and Wrekin have now approved our Apley Castle proposal, which will extend the building, enhancing visitor and communal spaces, and allow a larger therapy area for day patients.

We also want to develop our services in Bicton, Shrewsbury, creating a new building to house therapy suites, treatment rooms, visitor facilities, learning resources and rehabilitation services.

Together, the Telford and Shrewsbury schemes are part of our ‘Living Well’ concept – where patient care and support extends well beyond wards and inpatient services, enabling and supporting people to live as well as they can within the constraints of a terminal illness.

Heather Palin, Director of Patient Services, said: “Approval for our plans at Telford is an important first step in making our Living Well ambition a reality. Caring for patients with terminal illnesses has changed so much since our charity was set up almost 30 years ago.

“Most of our patients are now looked after in their own homes, with our in-hospice facilities playing a supporting role. We will always have wards and strive to be a centre of excellence for our inpatient care but we are so much more community based these days and we need to ensure our facilities always match the changing needs and expectations of patients.

“What we are doing at Telford and Shrewsbury means we can invest in developing services that patients can access whilst remaining in their own homes and are the start of our longer term future-proofing strategy.”

Once planning approvals have been secured for both sites, hospice trustees will decide on the appropriate funding strategy to take the proposals forward.

Heather added: “These are ambitious and exciting, multi-million pound commitments and as a charity we are reliant on the generosity of the community to help fund our work. It is right that we plan carefully how best to fund this project, including grant support, and it will be our Board that makes these decisions.”