As we enter our 41^st year, Strathcarron Hospice looks forward to the future, energised by the recent strange and very difficult experiences of the pandemic.

We had to adapt many of our ways of working and in some respects these will keep changing as we emerge for the pandemic. As well as wanting to get back to “normal”, we have also found new ways of working that we will want to retain.

We always want to reach as many people as possible and enable them to access Hospice care. Our clinical team worked as a “Virtual Hospice” to support people in their own homes when they did not want to come into the Hospice or a hospital. A much wider range of professionals visited and cared for people at home. Our Day Care team supported people by Zoom and video consultations and reached people who would have been unable to physically visit the Day Care Unit. We expanded our Hospice@Home nursing team to help people stay at home at the very end of life. We provided education and training support to a wide range of groups from care homes, to GPs and to the Ambulance service. Our Compassionate Neighbours helped communities mobilise to help themselves.

Going forward all of this gives us the potential to support many more people as they approach the end of life and we don’t want to lose this potential to provide symptom control, preparation for end of life and good end of life care to even more people who could benefit from this approach.

We are not out of the pandemic but it feels more hopeful and we will keep adapting to provide a service that stays relevant and valued and are as accessible as possible.