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The Hospice

 

During the ‘80’s many communities in the UK decided to fundraise to build new hospices to serve their particular areas. This happened in Reading too, and the ‘Buy a Brick for Dellwood’ campaign was started to build a local ‘Cancer Hospital’ on the Dellwood site which had previously housed a NHS maternity unit and subsequently a GP unit with non-acute beds.  A fundraising target of £250,000 a year for 5 years was set. Project managed by Macmillan’s, Duchess of Kent House was opened in 1992, and was so named as Macmillan’s royal patron at the time was the Duchess of Kent.

 

Originally, Duchess of Kent House was configured to provide 21 in-patient beds, day therapy, out-patient and Macmillan nurses services. However one of the wards of 4 beds was converted into a family room so that a patient and his partner could be together, reducing the number to 18.

 

Soon after opening, the unit was handed over to the NHS to manage and run. Today almost 50 NHS members of staff work here in this specialist palliative care unit (hospice) as doctors, clinicians, nurses, complementary and other therapists, admin staff and cleaners, supplemented by numerous volunteers.

 

Newbury and Wokingham also saw big fundraising campaigns (pre-dating Duchess of Kent House) to build BA Macmillan House (Wokingham’s Day therapy unit) and Charles Clore in Newbury (also day therapy, with two ‘Rainbow Rooms’ in the local hospital)

 

Although charitably funded through individual, corporate, and other donations, all three units are NHS managed and provide services free at no cost, according to need. The 3 units form part of the NHS Berkshire West Palliative Care Directorate with the Royal Berkshire Hospital and work in collaboration with each other.

 

Each of the three units have individual charities supporting them, with Duchess of Kent House Charity supporting the hospice of the same name. Because Duchess of Kent House provides in-patient beds and services the other two do not, it is the only full-service unit in the area of west and central Berkshire, serving Newbury, Wokingham, Reading and surrounding districts. As a consequence, its supporting charity, Duchess of Kent house Charity has a wider remit than the other two charities, and supports services across the whole area.