A Devon hospice is expanding its ‘Hospiscare at Home’ into the the Okehampton, Crediton and North Dartmoor areas amid unprecedented pressure on existing health services and demand for end of life care.

The specialist service supports patients and their families and carers who need expert end-of-life care 24 hours a day, seven days a week in the last weeks of life, to enable them to die peacefully and with dignity at home.

Hospiscare at Home is already available to patients in the Exmouth and Budleigh Salterton areas of East Devon. With this expansion, the service will be available to patients registered with a GP in Crediton, Okehampton and the surrounding villages and in areas of North Dartmoor. As a charity, Hospiscare faced a drastic drop in income during the pandemic due to the cancellations of fundraising activities and the closure of its 19 charity shops – just as the hospice saw a huge increase in need. In response to these difficulties, local communities throughout Devon rallied to the cause and have helped the hospice to partially close its funding gap.

At the same time, a small number of donors made generous gifts specifically to enable the expansion of Hospiscare at Home into the areas around Okehampton and Crediton in response to research into the benefits of dying at home.

Hospiscare’s CEO, Andrew Randall, said: ‘We are indebted to the local communities and local people who make it possible for us to provide our expert end-of-life care to people living with terminal illnesses across over 1,000 square miles of Devon.’

The new service will employ a team of nurses and healthcare workers, based in hubs in Okehampton and Crediton, and will support up to 150 patients and families a year.

The service has been under development since April and aims to provide 24/7 care 365 days a year from summer 2022. See www.hospiscare.co.uk/referrals or call 01392 688040