Okehampton United Charities recently gifted the local Hospiscare@Home service a grant for £15,000 which allowed the charity to expand its work across the North Dartmoor region

The local Hospiscare@Home service now covers the area surrounding Crediton, Okehampton and other North Dartmoor towns and works to provide care at home for terminally ill patients who wish to die at home.

In 2015, the Office for National Statistics found that about 81 per cent of patients wished to die at home but a further study by Public Health England in 2018 reported that only 23.5 per cent of patients were able to do so.

Since the Hospiscare@Home service began last year, the charity has been working closely with NHS community colleagues to provide expertise and support for those patients with complex, specialist palliative care needs. The charity has said that these relationships have strengthened during this period by working together, it has successfully supporting patients and those important to them at the end of their life.

From April to December 2022, the new Hospiscare@Home service received 76 referrals with the service’s nurses carrying out over 600 visits to patients’ homes. Of the 63 patients who died in the charity’s care, 62 died in their preferred place.

The charity said that it hopes it will be able to continue support patients in the areas surrounding Crediton, Okehampton and North Dartmoor

To donate visit www.hospiscare.co.uk/athome.