Time for a new take on end-of-life care
Thames Hospice provides practical, emotional and palliative support Thames Hospice in Bray wants people to think differently about hospice care as it continues its vital service amid a challenging financial climate. Reporter Sam Leech spoke to chief execu
What is your understanding of what a hospice does?
Many would suggest it is a place where people to go to die – but there is much, much more to the journey of patients and loved ones at Thames Hospice.
The hospice, which opened in Bray nearly four years ago, is aiming to challenge perceptions of its work and the care it provides.
Catherine McLaughlin, the hospice’s chief executive, said: “This is a place where – yes, death is a big part – but it’s about how do you make memories? How do you give hope at a time when there might not be much of that?
“Those final days in somebody’s life is a very important time and the lasting memories are important to those who are left behind.”
Thames Hospice provides palliative care: helping people young and old who have been diagnosed with life-limiting conditions such as cancer and heart conditions.
“How do you care for someone when conventional medicine has done its bit and can’t help them anymore?” said Catherine.
“We do that work – helping people live with pain, deteriorating health – where they’re not going to get better but making it the best that it can be in those circumstances.”
The hospice’s home beside Bray Lake offers beds for 20 people, but there are a further 450 under its care who live in and around the communities of Windsor, Slough and Maidenhead – 80 per cent of the care it provides.
Catherine has worked as a nurse in children’s care as well as helping older people.
She has been chief executive at Thames Hospice since 2022.
“When I was asked to take over, I thought ‘I can do something here, I can bring something very different to the hospice, to the patients and to the families,” she said.
“People think this place this all about death and dying – it’s not.”
Catherine said her own experience with end-of-life care had shaped her impressions of what help should be offered and what hospice care should aim to provide.
Her husband John died shortly after a lung cancer diagnosis.
“When my husband was diagnosed – he was acutely ill – but I remember thinking ‘how is someone going to pay the mortgage? How are we going to manage our finances? Those sorts of things, they don’t just stop when you get ill.”
More than half of the 336 employees at the hospice work in a medical roles like nurses and healthcare assistants.
But it also offers counselling support to families, support accessing benefits, writing wills and with funeral arrangements.
Although its care is free for patients, there is a cost to run all these services.
Catherine said: “It costs us £18.5million a year to run our services, and because we’re a local charity that can be a big ask.”
The hospice receives £6.2million in NHS funding but has to find the further £12.3 million itself – through fundraising and support from the community.
It managed a balanced budget for the last year but, like other care providers across the country, it is facing financial pressures.
“Most hospices are closing beds – we’re not quite at that stage but if government funding is cut it would be a concern,” said Catherine.
“It’s kind of the foundation of our clinical services, It’s our lifeline.”
She said she hoped that palliative care could be treated with the same importance as healthcare like radiology and cardiology.
“I think we’re on a journey – all the major changes in clinical practice in my career, its usually by people pioneering – banging on doors, writing about stuff and getting the story told
“We have to move away from this idea that death happens to other people – that’s not the reality – it’s not the nature of life.”
The Express will be taking a closer look at Thames Hospice’s work over the coming months.