A north Wales hospice which cares for people with life threatening illnesses could be forced to reduce its workforce.

Bosses at Nightingale House in Wrexham are finding it difficult to raise the �1.7m needed to keep the facility running.

It's something we have got to tackle now because the longer we leave it the worse this situation gets

Duncan Miller General Manager

The crisis has been blamed on an increase in the number of charities in the area and a shortfall in money from the North Wales Health Authority.

More than 80 people are employed to help run the 16-bed unit which is the only specialist palliative care hospice in north Wales.

The local health authority annually contributes �269,000 but this falls short of the cost of the site which relies heavily on money from the community.

General manager of the unit Duncan Miller said it is a difficult time.

"We have been spending more than we have been earning for the past two years but that is because we have felt it necessary to keep expanding the services," he said.

Duncan Miller: There could be redundancies

"Unfortunately there has been severe competition from a number of other local charities."

There are 82 people who work in the hospice and a further 10 who deal with promoting the charity.

Mr Miller said they are being forced to look at reducing their staff bill.

"Redundancies of a compulsory nature would be a last resort.

"We invited them [staff] where possible to reduce their hours, possibly take early retirement or even voluntary redundancy.

"So far, the staff offers have varied from reducing their hours by one hour-a-month, one hour-a-week, right through to people offering to take voluntary redundancy and two people looking for early retirement.

"If we can make an effort now to balance the books then we can go forward in the hope that in not too many years time the health authority's contribution will be at a level which matches the level of service we provide.

"It's something we have got to tackle now because the longer we leave it the worse this situation gets."

Hospice's future

More than 400 patients stay at the hospice every year but hundreds more attend the day care centre.

Nightingale House provides care for patients and their families.

Mr Miller said the charity has grown since it moved to its town centre location seven years ago.

"We have a day care section where we take up to 15 patients a day, we have a lymphedema clinic and we have outpatient clinics for the full time doctor we have here."

Money is also raised through the hospice's three charity shops but there is still a shortfall.

"We've got an income of around �1.3m a year at the moment" said Mr Miller.

"Unfortunately the health authority contribution only amounts to 18% of what is required.

"No matter how much you look at the sums we can not expect much more from a population in the catchment area we have.

"We're saving the National Health Service and the local hospitals money."

A final decision on the hospice's future and that of its staff will be discussed within the next few weeks.