Our commitment to community care has been formally crowned with the topping out of our new purpose-built day hospice in Shrewsbury.

We are investing £5 million in a new centre at Bicton Heath which will enable us to provide enhanced services for people who need our help but don’t need to stay in wards.

Principal contractor AM Griffiths & Son Ltd will install the roof this week, meaning the building can be sealed from the weather and the internal fixings can start, targeting an opening to patients later this year.

We care for four out of five patients at home and the new building will be home to therapy suites, treatment rooms, visitor facilities and rehabilitation services for them, as well as a learning resource for our staff and other healthcare professionals.

Becky Richardson, our director of care, said: “Being able to care for people in their homes, as well as on our wards when they’re needed, is the future of hospice care and we’re so pleased to be able to do this for our community.

“As fast as the building work is progressing, we’re all champing at the bit to get inside and start putting the heart into the new centre.”

Overall, we are caring for more people, for longer, and with a greater range of conditions and more complex needs.

As well as expanding our site and services at Shrewsbury, we are enhancing our facilities at Telford too.

Work has now started at Apley Castle, Telford, to extend the building, enhancing visitor and communal spaces and allow a larger therapy area for day patients.

The work at Shrewsbury is our largest single investment since opening the Telford hospice in 2008. We have used pre-donated funds, grants and legacy windfalls to underwrite this latest investment.

Photography: Jamie Ricketts/Shropshire Star