A Whittington hospice is extending its services to people living with cancer after winning a new contract.

St Giles Hospice which currently provides in-patient care at its Compassus Centre in Whittington, near Lichfield, has secured a contract to operate in-patient services at Walsall’s £4.5 million Palliative Care Centre at Goscote, which is due to be completed later this year.

Peter Holliday, St Giles Hospice Group Chief Executive, said:

“The success of St Giles in being invited to tender and then securing the contract to operate the new facility is testament to the hospice’s excellent reputation for providing the highest quality in-patient care.

“There has been no requirement for St Giles to fund the facility’s construction, and when it opens it will be of great benefit to patients across St Giles’ catchment area, which has included Walsall and its surrounding areas for many years.

“Not only will the new facility increase our overall capacity to provide end-of-life care for local people, but it will also relieve pressure on beds at the Compassus Centre, for which there is always high demand.”

As well as providing caring services at the new facility, St Giles Hospice will manage the funding of its running costs, working with the local community and the Walsall Hospice charity, which helped pave the way for the facility’s creation.

Funds generated locally will continue to be used to support St Giles’ existing services in the area.

Chairman of NHS Walsall, Dr Geoff Archenhold, added:

“Our new Palliative Care Centre is a centre of excellence which will herald a huge and long-awaited improvement in the services available locally to patients nearing the end of their lives.

“With building work well advanced, the next stage was to seek bids from potential partners to deliver the in-patient services at our centre. We found ourselves in the fortunate position of having an extremely high quality shortlist of potential service providers to choose from.

“We were particularly impressed by St Giles’ commitment to providing high quality care and their clear vision of how they will establish a strong local identity for the new service.”

Founder of Lichfield Live and editor of the site.