A hospice home with real heart
Bray: Patients are starting to arrive at new building
The arrival of patients to the newly opened Thames Hospice at Bray Lake has given the state-of-the-art facility its ‘beating heart’.
The £22 million project, which has taken six years of planning and 21 months to complete, opened its doors on Monday.
Surrounded by eight acres of landscaped gardens, the building is designed to lead the way in palliative and end-of-life care in a homefrom-home setting.
Debbie Raven, chief executive of Thames Hospice said the arrival of patients and visitors has made ‘the building come to life’.
“As an empty building it was beautiful and it felt very serene, and it already felt very calming, but when you put people in it, it really does develop a personality,” she said.
“To finally see the building come to life, which is how it feels, it feels like it now has a beating heart,” she said.
The Pine Lodge Inpatient Unit at the hospice is a legacy to the charity’s previous home in Hatch Lane, Windsor, which served the community for more than 30 years.
Debbie said Pine Lodge was ‘an amazing asset’ to the community but when comparing the two hospices’ ‘you really do appreciate how much healthcare build
ings have moved on’.
She said Pine Lodge, which had 17 beds, was ‘quite dark’ whereas
Thames Hospice at Bray Lake feels bright and airy, with ‘space and room to breathe’.
The new site has 28 private inpatient rooms split across three wings, named Kingfisher, Heron and Otter to complement the lakeside location. Each room comes with an en-suite bathroom, private terrace, and space for loved ones to stay over.
There is also a dedicated space for patients and their loved-ones to spend precious time together, as well as a bedroom overlooking a private courtyard for families and friends to stay over.
Debbie says patients and their loved ones have been ‘absolutely blown away by the views, the feeling of calm’.
The ‘Café by the Lake’ with views of the gardens and Bray Lake is also proving popular.
It is open to all visitors and the general public and offers refreshments every day from 8am-7pm.
Debbie said it is lovely to see patients’ loved ones able to get a ‘decent meal’ and sit down rather than walking around the hospice with packets of crisps and sandwiches from supermarkets.
“When you’re with somebody 24-7, the one thing that you don’t do is look after yourself properly,” Debbie said.
“We’re encouraging them to go to the cafe and to get a hot meal and to make sure that they maintain their health and wellbeing as well.”
In addition, the hospice includes a dedicated day therapy suite in the Paul Bevan Centre which will enable the hospice to double its day services and offer lymphoedema services in new clinic rooms.
Since March the hospice has not been operating its day services but the additional space at the new hospice means this service can resume in a COVID-safe way on Monday.
Day therapy patients can also use the specialist gym and physiotherapy equipment at the Louis Baylis Rehabilitation Centre, funded by a £115,000 grant from the Louis Baylis Trust.
Thames Hospice’s education team will provide training on palliative and end-of-life care in its new education and training centre.
This will be delivered to the charity’s staff as well as carers and healthcare professionals in the community.
Visit thameshospice.org.uk to donate.