Hospice boost as new machine means rooms can be made available to children quicker

The safety of children, families and staff has been paramount to the charity throughout the pandemic, and it has been a challenge for Hope House keeping its hospices - at Morda, near Oswestry, and Tŷ Gobaith - Covid safe.

Now thanks to the generosity of Shrewsbury-based company Select-a-Skip it has been able to buy new ozone generation machines that can disinfect a room within an hour.

Added to a thorough clean by hand, and the hospice staff can have a Covid safe room ready for a child in just two hours.

Hospice hospitality manager Heath Arnfield said that until now rooms needed to be left empty for three days between children, and some areas such as play rooms and sensory rooms had been out of action for long periods of time.

"These new ozone generation machines mean we can make more rooms available to more children and families that really need us.

“During Covid-19 our families have been shielding with their children. After months of isolation at home they are exhausted and in need of vital respite care.

“We have already adapted our facilities and care services to ensure they are as Covid safe as possible, and children are now visiting for planned respite once again in addition to crisis and end of life care. These machines will help us reach more families than we have been able to do so far this year, which is great news.”

James Keay, whose company Select-a-Skip has bought the machine for Hope House, said: “We were delighted to be able to support Hope House by funding the purchase of a new ozone machine.

“The hospice is an invaluable service to so many families in our community and it seemed a shame that rooms in the hospice were unavailable for occupation until they had been decontaminated.

“The ozone machine now means that a room can be turned around within hours instead of days allowing many more families of Hope House to access the facilities, care and support of their incredibly hard working and caring team.”