South Tyneside end-of-life care 'won't return to hospice site'

The new centre will be on the site of South Tyneside District Hospital

A new facility for end-of-life care in South Tyneside will not be opened on the site of a former hospice.

Campaigners have fought to reopen Jarrow's St Clare's Hospice, which closed in 2019 after the independent charity went into liquidation.

Health chiefs have now confirmed plans for a £1.5m facility at South Tyneside District Hospital in South Shields.

The proposal will be discussed next week by South Tyneside Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG).

South Tyneside has been without a dedicated inpatient palliative service since St Clare's closed in January last year.

The new facility would be set up at Haven Court care home, on the hospital site, which bosses believe will avoid the staffing shortages which affected the hospice in its later years.

The NHS will provide £1.5m funding annually - almost double the £800,000 it gave to support St Clare's charitable funding.

As well as private bedrooms with en-suite facilities, it will have its own garden, car park and entrance.

St Clare's Hospice provided end-of-life care for 30 years

Matt Brown, executive director of operations at the CCG, said it would "give really good quality end-of-life care in a really peaceful, dignified environment".

"People felt really passionately about St Clare's and gave a lot of time and money to keep it going, but even with that commitment it went insolvent.

"It couldn't develop the income it needed to survive, hence we're looking at NHS funding, which is more sustainable for the future."

The publication of the organisation's preferred option for palliative care in the borough had initially been due earlier this year but was pushed back due to the coronavirus outbreak.

It will be considered at a meeting of the CCG's governing body next Thursday, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.