Facts and Figures for St Luke's (Cheshire) Hospice 2022

Our Vision is... for all people living with a life limiting illness in Cheshire and those close to them to have access to the care and support they need, when and wherever they need it.

Our Mission is... to enable people in Cheshire to live the life they can, informed and supported until the end of their life and to be there for those who are close to them.

The Facts and Figures for St Luke’s (Cheshire) Hospice give you a flavour of the work across the Hospice in the year ending 31st March 2022.

During much of this year the Hospice remained subject to national lockdown rules and we continued to work with significant challenges to our clinical services, charity shops, fundraising events and the furlough of non-clinical staff.

As national lockdown rules eased, our services evolved to meet patients' needs post Covid 19.

Population St Luke's Hospice provides a truly local service caring for a population of approximately 300,000 people living in south and mid Cheshire 180,000 from South Cheshire (60%) 105,000 from Vale Royal (35%) 15,000 from other parts of Cheshire (5%) Last year we had over 1,000 patient referrals to our various clinical services. Last year our patients came from: 58% from South Cheshire CCG 40% from Vale Royal CCG 2% from other surrounding CCGs

Volunteers

Following the easing of Covid restrictions, it has been so good to see our volunteers return to fundraising events, reception, our shops and the many roles they fulfil. The Hospice could not provide the special care that it does without the dedication, loyalty and continuing support of its volunteers.

The number of volunteers supporting us at the end of the year across the whole organisation was 841, of which approximately 47% work in our ten charity shops and Warehouse. It is estimated that volunteers gave 45,741 hours of their time last year which equates to £443,688 worth of valuable support based on our minimum wage of £9.70.

Inpatient Unit Throughout the year we cared for more than 165 patients on our Inpatient Unit. Occasionally patients are admitted more than once during the year which led to 175 different periods of care.

We have 10 inpatient beds comprising two three-bedded bays and four single rooms. At the height of the Coronavirus pandemic, in order to ensure patient safety, we had to close two beds in each of our multiple occupancy rooms. As a result, our beds were 62% occupied during the year.

The average length of inpatient stay was 13 days, which is comparable to hospices of a similar size.

Of all the patients that we cared for on our Inpatient Unit, 73% were discharged back home.

Approximately 84% of patients admitted had a cancer diagnosis.

All our inpatients would have been admitted to hospital, confirming that the Inpatient Unit is a real alternative to hospital and has been an invaluable resource during the pandemic.

Open 24 hours a day, our advice line received approximately 239 telephone calls for support.

Day Hospice Day Hospice had 346 referrals to its services, with 215 patients attending Wellbeing Days. Our nurses also carried out 553 telephone care consultations.

When meeting our patients face-to-face, our Day Hospice offers a wide range of clinical and supportive therapies. The various services are: Hypnotherapies Day Hospice services on two days a week Carer Therapies Complementary Therapies Creative Therapies Specialist group therapies e.g. mindfulness and Acupuncture breathlessness.

Family Support

Our Family Support, Counselling, Spiritual and Chaplaincy services were all extremely busy. Over the last 12 months they had 290 referrals, with an ongoing caseload equating to more than 230 sessions per month.

Other Clinical Services

We also offer other clinical and supportive services: Lymphoedema Service Befriending Social Worker and Benefits Homelessness service Occupational therapy LGBTQ+ support We also have a strong connection with The Christie, who use our facilities two days a week to deliver vital chemotherapy treatment to patients who are referred to their service.

Fundraising

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It was fantastic, as restrictions eased, to be able to re-open our shops, hold fundraising events and meet with our loyal supporters once again.

The return of our Midnight Walk in June was well received with 545 supporters taking part raising £90,000 for patient care. A total of 11,431 children from 65 local schools participated in our Elf Run and we were delighted that our new virtual event '100k Your Way' was successful for a second year.

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Some top fundraisers for last year: Midnight Walk - £90,000 Light up a Life - £38,800 Butterflies of Love - £26,000 100K Your Way - £12,000

We were delighted in July to re-launch our Northwich shop as a specialist records and books store called R&B. We have nine shops based in Alsager (children's shop), Winsford (precinct and Furniture and Fashions on Delamere Street), Hartford, Middlewich, Nantwich, Northwich, Sandbach and Crewe. We also have a large Warehouse on Winsford Industrial Estate housing our ebay shop. Due to the challenges of Covid restrictions our annual sales were lower than previous years at £1.07 million.

Our Lottery remains the single biggest funding stream for our Hospice generating more than £12 million for patient care since 1994 and paying out over £3.2 million in prize money to local winners. It offers players the chance to win 35 cash prizes each week, including a £1,000 guaranteed jackpot. Over the year, three lucky winners won Rollover prizes totalling £12,600.

Thank you to the 93% of our 16,200 playing members who paid by direct debt, standing order or cheque, making it easier for us to collect their lottery membership. We also had two well supported raffles during the year.

Our Teams Owing to the impact of the pandemic, we have now adopted a more flexible way of working where staff can work at home where possible.

The Charity was overseen by a Board of 10 volunteer Trustees, from different professional backgrounds.

At the year ending 31/03/22 there were 136 staff (25 full time staff and 111 part time staff) of which 84% are female and 16% male.

Healthcare staff– we have 58 clinical/medical staff providing a 24/7, 365 days a year Specialist Palliative Care Service.

Support staff– there are 35 support staff which includes catering, housekeeping, maintenance, finance, IT, human resources and administration.

Income Generation staff - we have 43 staff working across our 9 shops and Warehouse, as well as our Community, Event and Corporate fundraising teams, supported by the Communications, Lottery and administration teams.

How is the Hospice funded?

A summary of our consolidated accounts for the year ending 31st March 2022 shows how we raised and spent the money during the year.

How much does it cost to run the Hospice?

With the NHS, via a Cheshire Clinical Commissioning Grant, covering only 13% of our costs, we remain extremely grateful to the regular donors, supporters, event participants, lottery players and shop customers. Without their support, we could not provide the care that we do.

The financial support that all hospices received across the country as a vital part of the Government's capacity planning for the third Covid wave, has enabled the Hospice to declare a healthy financial surplus. However, this surplus, in isolation, creates a false picture and needs to be viewed in relation to the challenges faced by the Hospice. If you discount ‘one off’ special income, which will not be repeated in subsequent years, the Hospice shows an underlying operating deficit of (£267,000) excluding legacies.

With an extremely uncertain future, faced by rising inflation, interest rates and energy bills etc., we are already forecasting lower charitable fundraising next year when compared to previous years. As a consequence, the Senior Management Team and Trustees are taking measures to carefully manage the expenditure of the Hospice. We intend to use this year’s surplus to fund the stable delivery of the special care that we provide over the next few years until the level of our charity fundraising hopefully recovers to pre-pandemic levels. The surplus will enable us to implement a modest plan to modernise and refresh certain patient areas inside the Hospice as well as cautiously introduce the much needed St Luke’s Community Night Care service.