Shropshire Star comment: Let’s keep up Paul’s dedication
The work conducted by publicly-funded hospices in Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin is truly remarkable.
Though some might imagine hospices are the place where people go to die – they avowedly are not.
They are a place where people go to live, where staff give their all to make sure people enjoy the latter stages of their life. In addition to those requiring palliative care, hospices also provide psychological counselling, drop-in centres and more.
That work relies largely on the exceptional talents of staff who daily make lives better. But the tone is set by management. And at the Severn Hospice, Paul Cronin has been responsible for that for some 15 years.
The retiring chief executive has led an exceptional team through a period of change. He has done so with dignity and fortitude. And his efforts have made a difference to many families who have enjoyed happier times with poorly relatives than they might otherwise.
And yet Mr Cronin would be the first to deflect any praise towards the wider team that provides such high standards at Severn Hospice. Those team members do not simply include doctors, nurses and ancillary staff, they also include the wider public who help to raise funds.
For it remains the case that hospices in Shropshire are funded by the community at large through fund-raising efforts. While the Government provides money for the NHS, hospices have no such support. And yet the pressures on them are just as great, sometimes more so. It remains entirely perverse that the public should need to pay towards the care of people who have chipped into the State through taxes and National Insurance contributions throughout their life. When they need the State most, it seems to abandon them. Each year, the hospice generates £7 million and the county can truly be proud.
Mr Cronin has been in the hot seat for 15 years and none would begrudge him a long and happy retirement. He has provided exceptional service and it is time to move on building on his work.
Severn Hospice, like Hope House children’s hospice, represents the best of Shropshire and we would encourage people to support them.
Demand for the hospice’s services has quadrupled under Mr Cronin’s tenure. He has served his people well.
