TERMINALLY ill patients will get easier access to vital care in their own home thanks to a lottery grant of almost £1m.
The Butterwick Hospice, Marie Curie and the Durham Dales and Sedgefield NHS Primary Care Trusts have joined forces to extend the home palliative care service offered to the terminally ill and their carers across the Durham Dales and Sedgefield borough.
Dignitaries and guests celebrated the news of the £775,114 grant from the New Opportunities Fund at the re-launch of the service, at the hospice in Bishop Auckland, on Monday.
Graham Leggatt-Chidgey, Butterwick Hospice Cares chief, said: "I am delighted we are able to develop this vital service with the support of the New Opportunities Fund and our other partners. It enables us to address the needs of the many patients who wish to remain in their own homes, with their loved ones, as their illness progresses."
The money will pay for an extra 27 hours of qualified care time in homes in the Durham Dales and a further 18 hours in the Sedgefield area.
It will also see the Butterwick Hospice open one-day-a-week hospices at the Richardson Hospital, Barnard Castle, and the community hospitals in Stanhope and Sedgefield.
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