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Our current building allows us to provide free care for patients on our IPU, those who come in to use our Wellbeing Centre on a weekly basis, and to patients who wish to be cared for at home. However, for every person we care for, we know that there are many more who would benefit from our care.

We want to create a Hospice that meets the future needs of our community. With the growth in population in our area and the demand on the NHS, we have ambitions to provide more care, in a way that suits our patients’ needs more effectively. This extension will allow us to provide that 21st century care that we know is needed for local people.

The build will cost £4million. We are fortunate and very grateful that more than half of the funding for the project will be significantly met by generous legacies left to us by our supporters. We are also grateful to the following trusts and foundations who have provided funding to support the project:

Marshall’s Charitable Trust
MK Community Foundation
Albert Hunt Trust
Bernard Sunley Foundation
Inlight Trust

The remaining amount will be met through our reserve funds and further grant funding.

The vast majority of the funding for this will be met by the legacies we have been left, our own reserves and kind donations from trusts and foundations. We aim to achieve the extra funding we need from grant funding.

The generous donors who left these legacies specified that their money must be used to improve our building to serve future generations. The impact of this extension will improve patient care immensely, giving us more flexible and useable space to improve the way we deliver our care now and in the future.

The money from the legacy donors is called non-recurrent funding, which means it would be inappropriate for us to invest in services that would have to cease once the money ran out. By investing in the Hospice for the future, we create the space and opportunity we will need to then bid for further recurrent funding to provide our services and be financially viable for longer.

The project will encompass a refurbished In-Patient Unit including 15 homely bedrooms with enhanced facilities to help promote and maintain patients’ dignity and independence.

Each room will have a lakeside view creating light, open rooms that bring the outside in; an improved Wellbeing Centre that will offer more ‘drop-in’ services and activities for ‘outpatients’; the creation of new spaces for our Patient and Family Services to support the whole family, including better areas for us to support children and young people; flexible space to help patients meet their goals to maintain an active life through physiotherapy; and a new kitchen and café that will allow us to produce more nutritious meals for patients and enhanced meal facilities for their visitors; a new lake view lounge will create a family friendly environment that allows patients and their families more space to spend crucial time together, instead of having to grab space in corridors or cramped rooms.

The future of Hospice care is far more varied than delivering care in an in-patient unit. Our future will see us offer more holistic care, and support for people earlier in their journey. Our new extension will give us the space we need to provide drop-in services, break out areas, and family areas that are needed far more than extra bedrooms.

No, the original Manor House, which is synonymous with the Hospice will not be affected by the project. Some internal works will take place to improve the building and the layout of the Hospice.

The way hospices provide care has changed drastically in the last decade. Rather than focusing on in-patient care at the very end of life, we want to start our journey with people who are living with a life limiting illness much sooner. This could mean offering activities for patients to come in and attend holistic therapy sessions, take part in counselling and advice sessions, or join fitness and wellbeing groups, much earlier in their diagnosis.

It will allow our community nurses teams to develop their service alongside their colleagues in physiotherapy for example, and although patients may receive their main care at home, they could access the Hospice in a ‘drop-in’ capacity, which will help them to feel more familiar with the Hospice.

The development will have some impact on our gardens, however we think this is a good use of the space to ensure we can provide our services for our patients into the future. The extension will allow people to make more use of the gardens as the café area will include outside spaces to sit and enjoy the garden and take in the view of the lake.

Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, work was put on hold so we had full capacity to focus on supporting our NHS colleagues. Work began onsite in June 2021 and is expected to take a year.

Our café and kitchen will allow us to produce more nutritious meals for patients and enhanced meal facilities for their visitors. It will provide a social space for patients and their loved ones, but it is possible that we will open up to the public at selected times. This would provide an income stream and a place for the community to use and become more familiar with our work.

The majority of the cost is being met through legacies, Hospice funds and money that we hope to secure from trusts and foundations. However, we will be offering the public the chance to be part of this legacy by helping us to meet the cost of soft furnishings to create a warm and welcoming place for our patients and their loved ones.

Beds will be reduced to between 6-8 beds for a period of 9 months. Our Willen@Home team will be operating to full capacity during this time, visiting patients in their own homes. We will be liaising with local GPs and the hospital to ensure they are aware of the changes for this short period to make sure we can work together to best support patients. We ask that you use the usual referral process and we will do our best to support patients in the best way we can.

We will work with our appointed contractors to ensure that any disruption to local roads is kept to a minimum.

The intention will be for the contractors to access site via Milton Road using the access to the existing lake side car parks through to their site compound.

Working hours will be in line with local authority restrictions and likely to allow the following working hours:
Mon – Fri 8am – 6pm
Sat – 8am – 1pm
Sun & Bank Holidays – no works

There will be no impact on the lakeside.

We have worked hard with our contractors to ensure the Hospice remains the peaceful place it is during the build. We are doing everything we can to keep disruption to a minimum, but on the occasions when there is a little more noise than we are used to, we will keep patients and visitors informed of this in advance.

Construction times will be kept to the specified working hours mentioned above.

Our contractors are part of the considerate contractors programme which means they will keep disruption of any kind to a minimum.  The contractors will be required to keep the site and surrounding areas clear of waste and debris and ensure no mud is tracked onto public highways.

A full survey of the site has been carried out and there will no impact on wildlife.  A desktop ecology survey has been undertaken and has been issued as part of the planning application.

Yes, there are no restrictions that affect the extension.

Our lakeside events will carry on as usual (within pandemic restrictions), although we may need to make adjustments to registration, start and end points for things like Mini-Moo, Santa Dash and running events. Please keep an eye on our website and social media pages to see what events are taking place and how you can get involved.

The building works will mean that contractors will be visiting the site regularly, however due to the reduction in the number of beds during this time, we expect visitor traffic to reduce.

We have also made some changes to where staff are based and introduced remote working that will reduce the number of staff parking at the Hospice.

Our planning application was accepted in January 2020, but due to the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic, we had to put our plans on hold.  After a year delay, work started on site in June 2021 and we expect it to take approx. 12 months.