Countdown begins to St Wilfrid's opening its doors
On Monday (April 15) trustees, staff and the transition project team were given a tour of the building and the keys were officially handed over to St Wilfrid’s by the contractor Kier Construction.
The next stage will see furniture, fixtures, and equipment moved over with the official opening taking place in July.
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Hide AdAlison Moorey, chief executive of St Wilfrid's, said: “I am delighted the end of the building part of the project is now in sight.
"It is amazing to think back to when it was some greenhouses in a field to what it is now.
"It is a fantastic environment and to see it from rooms on a piece of paper to here in front of you - wow."
Double the size of the old hospice the new building in Walton Lane, Bosham has 18 patients room, compared to 14 in the Grosvenor Road, Chichester site.
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Hide AdEach of the patient rooms has smart bed technology for optimum comfort and safety, private family areas and chapel for personal reflection and a Living Well Centre which offers therapeutic and social activities to boost wellbeing and enable visitors to live independently for longer.
Suzy O'Callaghan, director of nursing, said: "We were really keen that in the new building we wanted to improve the Living Well space.
"At the moment the art room is a small room at the end of a hall but here we have a dedicated space where we can hold more classes and more people can be involved with suitable storage space."
The Living Well centre includes a dedicated gym and rooms for complimentary therapies.
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Hide Ad"We want the space to be more about living than dying," explained Suzy. "It is very much about enablement, while improving and developing them to live well."
There will also be a publicly available volunteer-run café.
Alison said: "Being involved with the design from the start meant we could think about the flow of the hospice and how it would work.
"As well as thanking our supporters and donors, I would also like thank our main contractor Kier and the other contractors for the quality of their workmanship and dedication to getting this ambitious project finished.
"This building is about our future and giving ourselves room to grow."
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Hide AdSt Wilfrid’s relies on public donations, wills and grants to meet 86 per cent of its annual running costs.
Supporters and members of the public will soon be invited to tour the £16.2 million state of the art Hospice that their support helped to build this August and September.
For more information about how to support the essential work of the Hospice please visit stwh.co.uk to register for the St Wilfrid’s newsletter, or contact the fundraising team on 01243 755827.
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