Woking & Sam Beare Hospice and Wellbeing Care is a patient-led charity that cares for thousands of patients and their carers and families each year. We specialise in delivering holistic care for patients with complex life-limiting and terminal illnesses.
We are driven by some core principles:
Our mission is to provide specialist palliative care for people with advanced progressive illnesses which addresses their physical, emotional, social and spiritual needs whilst preserving dignity and respect and thereby enhances their quality of life and supports their families and carers.
Our vision is to enable all those with life limiting illnesses to live life to the full and to equip them to die with choice and dignity.
Caring and Compassion: We will care with compassion, communicate with honesty and sensitivity, facilitate understanding and choice and ensure respect and dignity.
Accountability: We will dedicate ourselves to safeguard and support our patients and their families, our volunteers and our staff by working to the highest professional and ethical standards.
Respect: We will respect all regardless of their ability, age, gender, race or sexual orientation and we will not tolerate prejudice of any kind.
Excellence: We will remain committed to continual learning and development to ensure that we deliver excellence in all that we do.
In the year 2021/22, the Hospice cared for 1,521 individual patients, with many patients accessing more than one of our services. The Hospice employs around 225 local people and over 75% of our services are delivered in patient homes. Our main activities are delivered through the following:
The Hospice provides 20 beds at its inpatient Unit in Goldsworth Park, Woking where 24-hour care is provided by a highly skilled and dedicated multi-disciplinary team. Patients are cared for in single rooms with private bathrooms. Provision can be made for family members to stay overnight with patients.
Our Community Nurse Specialist Team provides advice and support to patients living with life limiting conditions in their own homes. Members of the team work collaboratively with GPs and District Nurses and provide a vital link with their colleagues working on the Inpatient Unit and in the Hospice at Home Team.
The Hospice at Home service provides hands on support to those patients in the last few weeks of life and who wish to die in their own homes.
Outpatients can access wellbeing services each weekday. A team of palliative care specialists work with patients to identify their personal goals for living and support them to live as well as possible within the constraints of their illness. Services in the Bradbury Wellbeing Centre include Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists and Complementary Therapists delivering massage, aromatherapy, reflexology and relaxation.
The Hospice provides a wide range of bereavement, counselling and befriending services to patients, their carers and family members including children.
Clinical staff and counsellors work closely with religious leads across the community. The Hospice Retreat provides a quiet, reflective space which can be utilised by patients, family members, friends or staff.
The Hospice is supported by many volunteers who enable the Hospice to provide all the services that it does. It is estimated that our volunteers save the Hospice in excess of £1 million per annum in equivalent staff costs. Their social impact value to the community is significantly more. The immense value of these individuals is very much appreciated by the staff and Trustees.
The Hospice is a registered charity, and its services are free to the people who need them. Around one third of the Hospice costs are met by the local Clinical Commissioning Group and around two thirds is generated by fundraising and retail activities. A fundraising team is employed by the Hospice.
In recent years , we have focused on assuring our long-term financial sustainability. This has allowed us to continue to play a key role in supporting our partners in the delivery of health and social care across North West Surrey. We were pleased to report that we closed the year ended 31st March 2022 with a positive surplus. This is particularly important for us to be able to build our future reserves.
The fundraising and marketing teams are responsible for generating income and increasing awareness of the Hospice. Income generation is from donations, organised events, hospice lottery, trusts and foundations and legacies. Another important area for profile raising and income generation is our retail operation. With 17 retail stores we are a prominent, visible presence throughout our region.
It costs in excess of £5 million a year to provide clinical care and support.
The Hospice is committed to ensuring that all risks connected with its activities for patients, staff and volunteers are identified, assessed and managed appropriately and effectively in accordance with its Risk Management policy.
The Hospice has a robust Quality Management System incorporating a formal audit programme agreed by the Clinical Quality Group and a programme of mandatory training to ensure staff are adequately skilled to provide quality services. The Hospice produces an annual Quality Account which is made available to the local Clinical Commissioning Group and provides regular updates regarding quality, safety and governance issues to the Board of Trustees.
The Hospice was last inspected by the Care Quality Commission in December 2019 when Inspectors assessed our clinical performance as “GOOD” and on a trajectory to “OUTSTANDING”. During the COVID pandemic, the CQC adopted a practice of regular (quarterly) virtual monitoring sessions covering all aspects of our activities.
Providing our services across North West Surrey, all our stakeholder relationships are important to us with the most obvious being the NHS North West Surrey Clinical Commissioning Group, the Care Quality Commission, our NHS Trust Hospitals and our network of GPs and the wider healthcare sector.
A key and influential new stakeholder organisation is the North West Surrey Alliance. The Alliance is a formal partnership of key organisations (including the Hospice) across the Boroughs of Woking, Runnymede, Elmbridge and Spelthorne (circa 370,000 people) that all have an impact on the health, wellbeing and happiness of local communities. It seeks to tackle some of the most significant health and care challenges facing people in North West Surrey, transforming how services are operated to meet the challenges posed to a 21st-century health system.
The Hospice is situated in the centre of a large residential area approximately three miles from Woking town centre, the railway station and amenities.
The immediate area comprises a GP Practice, St Andrews Church and a number of retail outlets. There is ample parking on site for staff and visitors and there are well marked disabled bays. In addition, there is a large car park opposite the Hospice entrance which is free of charge for visitors and staff. Permits (for parking stays of more than 3 hours) can be issued at Reception.
Our Hospice building was imaginatively re-purposed from former office accommodation and is an excellent example of sustainable development using a brown-field site. The new Hospice was formally opened in December 2017 by HRH Countess of Wessex.
The main entrance leads to the Hospice café and reception area. The Hospice reception is manned each day from 8am until 6pm by employed staff and trained volunteers, with overnight security cover contracted out. A security system is in operation at night. There is CCTV on site and access to areas within the Hospice is security controlled. All visitors are required to register upon arriving and leaving the building.
The Wellbeing Centre is located on the ground floor and includes a large, open plan room with bifolding doors to a garden, a physiotherapy gym, an outpatient consultation room, two complementary therapy rooms, two counselling rooms and a large spa bathroom with specialised lifting equipment.
The inpatient accommodation is located on the first floor and is accessible by stairs and a lift. All patient rooms are single occupancy with individual bathroom facilities and access to a balcony. Rooms are equipped with a specialist bed and mattress, an integrated ceiling hoist, a recliner chair, nurse call system, telephone line, smart television (including Skype facilities), Wi-Fi internet access and a mini fridge. Two rooms are adapted for use by bariatric patients. There is also a large, assisted bathroom with a spa bath and specialist equipment to provide a safe environment for patients.
Overnight accommodation for relatives can be arranged in the patient’s room. There is also a family room with kitchen facilities, comfortable seating and television. Two quiet rooms are available for private communication with families. The building also provides an Education Centre and other support services. Office accommodation is provided in an adjacent modular building.
There is a multi-faith room in the grounds of the Hospice. The Hospice gardens were designed by landscape architect Charlotte Harris, who is an RHS Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner.
Have a placement with us? Log in to the candidate portal to manage your placement and submit your timesheets.
ACCESS CANDIDATE PORTALclick to reset your password
To use your social account first:
Accept Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy