Many people in Worcestershire require general palliative care and others suffer from life threatening illness and need specialist palliative care. St Richard’s is able to ensure that patients can choose where they wish to be treated and where they wish to die. It means that patients can be cared for in a hospice rather than being inappropriately admitted to an acute hospital where there is an ethos of curing the patient rather than ensuring they have the best quality of life in final days.

Although the hospice In patient unit was set up to provide beds for patients in the South of Worcestershire, five of the sixteen beds provided are available for patients in the North of the County. The Specialist Palliative Care nurse will care for patients in the In-patient Unit who stay anywhere between 8-14 days with approximately 60% needing end of life care whilst others are discharged back to their homes or to an appropriate area of care.