When you needed them, they were there... now they need you

A hospice that has helped 10,000 people over 25 years has found itself in serious peril and faces having to make job losses.

The Heart of Kent Hospice supports people with terminal illnesses, plus their families and carers. It was officially opened by Princess Diana in 1992, a year after it was founded.

The vital service needs to save close to £1million and around 20 positions are at risk of redundancy.

Staff are hoping readers will come to its aid and the care service has teamed up with the Kent Messenger for the Get Behind Heart of Kent Hospice appeal.

This year the Aylesford-based facility has already reduced its costs by £420,000 after freezes in government funding.

It gets just £900,000 from Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) which manages healthcare budgets, but running costs have been rising and now stand at £5.4million a year.

Donations and fundraising are relied on to provide 84% of the annual running costs.

Sarah Pugh, chief executive, said: “We now need to take additional steps to reduce our annual expenditure by a further £575,000.

“Regretfully this means there are likely to be redundancies among our workforce.”

There are currently 128 permanent staff, and several volunteers. The organisation is heading into a 90-day consultation about the job losses, where 20 or more people could be made redundant.

Patient numbers keep increasing every year. In 2011, 752 patients were helped with CCG funds of £803,195.

This year the hospice expects to see more than 1,261 patients, and funding has only gone up to £907,800.

It is hoped the campaign will generate £600,000 to secure the long-term future of services.

The hospice runs inpatient and outpatient units, a community nursing team and support services for families.

Mrs Pugh added: “Our goal is to minimise the impact on patient care, and remain true to the principles of providing compassionate end-of-life care, free of charge, to everyone who needs it. So we are appealing to our local community to get behind us to ensure we can be there for everyone who needs us, now and in the future.”

To donate, go to www.hokh. org/donate