The Chief Executive of St. Andrew’s Hospice has paid tribute to the hospice staff, who he says are “making extraordinary efforts through what are extremely difficult and stressful times for everyone.”

Bruce High, said today: “Even in these uncertain times, we remain completely committed to providing care and support to the people of Lanarkshire. Our specialist team is working hard to continue to provide the highest standard of care to patients staying in our inpatient unit.

“Whilst our Wellbeing and Outpatient Services are suspended for the time being, the team have put non face-to-face support in place for those who are most vulnerable. As well as providing telephone advice and support, the team are also making resources such as regular Tai Chi exercise videos and mindfulness recordings available online for patients to access. Similarly our Compassionate Lanarkshire (CLAN) team are maintaining contact with clients via phone and our Complementary Therapists are even providing telephone Reiki! Our Patient & Family Support Team are also providing spiritual and bereavement support via telephone. People can self-refer for this service here.”

St Andrew’s Hospice has been working closely with NHS Lanarkshire and in a statement released on Friday 27^th March, Craig Cunningham, Head of Commissioning and Performance, South Lanarkshire Health & Social Care Partnership announced:  “During this critical time, St Andrew’s Hospice will accept all acute hospice inpatient admissions for the whole of Lanarkshire.”

In addition, some of the Palliative Care medical staff who are normally based at the hospice are instead basing themselves at the three acute hospitals in Lanarkshire and in the community so that they can continue to provide expert advice and support across hospital and community settings as well as the hospice.

Bruce High added: “We are currently living in unprecedented times which are requiring extraordinary efforts from all of our staff. The response from St. Andrew’s staff so far has been nothing short of amazing. I am extremely proud of their dedication to their work and how everyone has adapted and pulled together in this ongoing crisis. As a team, we will continue to support our patients and their loved ones as well as we possibly can and together we will weather this storm.

“You may have seen that we have had to cancel or postpone much of our fundraising activity and close our shops. This will inevitably lead to a large loss of income. Please do keep up-to-date about changes to our fundraising events on our website and social media channels.”

If you would like to make a donation to St Andrew’s Hospice, please visit https://www.st-andrews-hospice.com/make-a-donation/. You can also donate on our Facebook page or for donations up to £30, you can now text SAH and your amount to 70085 (for example, to donate £20 text SAH20).