The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly recently turned the sod on a new €14 million, 12-bedded, single-roomed, in-patient unit at North West Hospice, Sligo.

The HSE-funded new build will comprise of an extension to the current building and will include 12 single rooms as well as outpatient facilities. The existing in-patient unit will be refurbished to house the multidisciplinary palliative care team.

The current hospice in-patient unit consists of 7 beds, made up of 3 single rooms and a 4-bedded mixed gender ward. While the current in-patient unit served the population of the North West well over the last 25 years, the building is not purpose-built. The new unit will provide a much-improved physical structure that will further enhance the excellent specialist palliative care already provided in North West Hospice. The additional beds will increase the capacity by over a third, which will help to meet the growing demand for the service.

It is anticipated that the project will be completed by the end of 2025.

Clinical services at North West Hospice provide palliative care for people with life-limiting illnesses where they are residing - be that at home, in a nursing home, in hospital or in the hospice.

Palliative care involves meeting an individual and assessing their needs, along with those of their families – spiritually, physically, socially and emotionally. These needs are then addressed with the aim of improving the quality-of-life for the patients and their families. Providing this care, North West Hospice has a team of professionals including doctors, nurses, social workers, physiotherapists, occupational therapists and chaplaincy services.

North West Hospice has been at the forefront of palliative care in Ireland. They were the first specialist palliative care service nationally to provide services that were integrated across acute, community and hospice settings. This followed the establishment in 2003 of the acute hospital palliative care service in Sligo University Hospital, under the clinical and management governance of North West Hospice.

Speaking at the event, Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly said he was “delighted to turn the sod on the new in-patient unit at North West Hospice. Palliative care services have developed in Ireland successfully due to a long-standing tradition of positive co-operation between the voluntary and statutory sectors. I want to pay a special tribute to the staff and volunteers at North West Hospice who provide excellent palliative care during what can be a very difficult time for patients and families.”

Dermot Monaghan, Chief Officer, Community Healthcare Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo, added that it was “wonderful to be here to mark the commencement of the work on this new HSE funded in-patient unit. North West Hospice delivers incredible comfort and warmth to patients and their families and the service it provides is invaluable.”

North West Hospice Operational Lead Nuala Ginnelly said they were “delighted to see work commence on our new in-patient unit. This development is essential to meet the current and future needs of patients and families in the local community. We would like to reassure people that all of our services will run as normal during the period of construction.”