The director of patient services at Garden House Hospice Care has assured the local community that many of the hospice’s services will remain open during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jayne Dingemans said: “I am determined that we will continue to provide as many of our services as possible throughout the outbreak in one way or another. We are continually adapting to follow the latest government guidance, taking every measure to protect our patients, staff and volunteers while continuing to deliver the very best end of life care.

“Our Inpatient Unit is still open 24 hours a day, but we have made the difficult decision to reduce the number of people visiting in the IPU. We must protect our vulnerable patients and work together to help to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on our patients.

“We know how important visitors are when you’re poorly and with thanks to the support of our local community, we have received numerous iPad donations which are being used by our patients everyday to Facetime with loved ones.

“We are also facing the reality of an uncertain financial future. Our 12 shops and eBay site are now closed and 90 per cent of our events have been postponed until later dates, with our fundraising team working hard to deliver new and exciting virtual events to take part in over the next few weeks.

“We need to raise £7,500 every day to provide our services. So we are concerned, but it will be some time before we realise the true impact of the virus on our income.”

You can read Jayne’s full statement at www.ghhospicecare.org.uk/about-us/news/detail/2020/03/25/a-message-from-our-director-of-patient-services