Ten grants, totalling £117,726 were awarded recently to successful applicants to the Help the Hospices Rank Foundation grant programme.
This year the grant programme was specifically themed to focus on supporting and developing hospice at home services. Sixty-six applications were received, collectively worth in excess of £1 million in terms of the total amount requested.
As the budget for the 2009 programme was £118,000 this meant that some difficult decisions had to be made by the grant committee.
Overview of applications received
The type of applications could be divided into three main categories and in order of popularity these were:
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IT projects; by far the greatest number of applications, requesting more than £403,000 and ranging from laptops for nurses working in the community to electronic patient record systems.
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Medical equipment; the next greatest number, requesting almost £170,000 for items such as syringe drivers and hoists.
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Vehicles; requesting almost £195,000 in total, varying from a patient transport minibus, cars for nurses to access patients at home and vans to transport equipment to support patients at home.
We also received a number of requests to fund general capital costs such as office improvements, inpatient refurbishments and day care equipment.
In light of the large number of applications received the committee agreed to:
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concentrate on those which focussed on ‘at home’ services as opposed to refurbishment of buildings
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only fund capital costs, although it was acknowledged that revenue costs were an important part of a project
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fund only the hardware costs, and not the software costs, for IT projects.
Successful applications
Ashgate Hospice, Derbyshire
Grant awarded: £19,945
Purchase of a new van to transport equipment to patients in their own homes.
EllenorLions Hospice, Kent
Grant awarded: £9,780
To purchase portable electronic notebooks, to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home.
Hospice of St Francis, Hertfordshire
Grant awarded: £7,500
To purchase laptops, to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home
Hospice of St Mary of Furness, Cumbria
Grant awarded: £16,000
Two cars for clinical staff operating in a geographically large rural area to visit patients at home
HospiceCare North Northumberland
Grant awarded: £3,217
Purchase of portable physiotherapy equipment to provide exercises and rehabilitation to patients at home.
Northern Ireland Hospice, Newton Abbey
Grant awarded: £20,000
Purchase of laptops to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home
Prospect Hospice, Wiltshire
Grant awarded: £13,000
Purchase equipment to loan to patients cared for at home to enable them to stay there in greater comfort.
St Peter & St James Hospice, East Sussex
Grant awarded: £11,800
Purchase of IT equipment to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home
St Peter's Hospice, Bristol
Grant awarded: £5,760
Purchase of laptops to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home
Woking Hospice, Surrey
Grant awarded: £10,724
Purchase of laptops to enable the community staff to access and record clinical notes, while visiting patients at home
Further information
The Rank Foundation grant programme is currently closed to application but will be open again in spring 2010. Further details will be posted on our website closer to the time.
