More money promised for hospice serving Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch
The Welsh government has promised that a hospice serving the Shropshire border will get extra cash for July, August and September.
Nightingale House Hospice, based in Wrexham, had warned it would be unable to continue delivering first-class patient services unless there was a fundamental change to the way it was funded.
As well as its building, the charity runs a 'hospice at home' service extending to the Oswestry, Ellesmere and Whitchurch areas.
Its CEO, Steve Parry, last week revealed that traditional fundraising avenues have been decimated in lockdown and that the hospice would lose £1.2 million this year, a large portion of that due to the closure of its 11 charity shops and two cafes - now beginning to reopen.
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It has also been necessary to cancel all fundraising events from March until December at the earliest.
He said that while the hospice had received £200,000 from the Government in April to help it through the crisis it had not had the further funding that that it had expected and said it seemed communication had broken down.
Now the hospice says it has received positive communication from the Welsh Government. It has confirmed its commitment to help support all charitable independent hospices across Wales during the months of July, August and September.
"Whilst this support will not cover the full extent of our financial shortfall, it does provide the degree of assurance needed in order for all patient services to be maintained during this period," a hospice spokesman said.
"At Nightingale House we are blessed to have such a loyal and committed community to support their local hospice. We are confident that this close bond will ensure that we will survive this current crisis and continue to do all in our power to deliver patient care and support for families and loved ones which our community so richly deserves.
"We appreciate that in the coming months, and until we are able to overcome the dreadful impact of this pandemic, we will be faced with extremely difficult challenges and your support is needed more than ever," the spokesman said.
