Patients hail new £12.5m 'life changing' hospice

Patients have described a new £12.5m state-of-the-art hospice as "life changing".

The Priscilla Bacon Lodge at Colney, near Norwich, Norfolk, welcomed its first patients earlier this month.

It replaces the hospice's former facility on the city's Unthank Road, which was built more than 40 years ago.

The new building has 24 inpatient rooms, a chapel, a cafe and an outdoor courtyard.

"We get so much love and support from everyone here. The staff are incredible," said 40-year-old Vivien Smith, a former pub manager who has secondary breast cancer.

"It’s a place where you can feel safe. It's a place where our carers know we can come and be looked after and they can go off and do their own thing."

Construction on the new hospice began in February 2022 following a three year fundraising campaign.

It is located on an eight-acre site close to the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital at Colney.

"I don’t feel we're patients and I don't feel those around us are staff. We're a family," said inpatient Sid Mann, 78, from Blofield.

"I so look forward to coming here, I really do. That may sound strange… It gives me purpose. It gives me hope."

The care provided to patients at the hospice is funded by the Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust.

Other services such as bereavement support, garden maintenance and enhanced catering is paid for by the Priscilla Bacon Hospice Charity.

Charlotte Shawe, quality matron for palliative care at the hospice, said: "We’ve got these beautiful double doors here that go out into the outside space and the beautiful gardens.

"All of the beds and chairs can be wheeled out here so patients can sit in this space with their families."

The Priscilla Bacon Hospice Charity said it hoped to introduce art and music therapy in the future.

"It's facilitating living, it's not about dying," Ms Smith added.

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