{"id":674573,"date":"2026-01-05T03:11:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:11:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674573\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T03:11:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T03:11:12","slug":"wes-streeting-opens-london-hospice-ward-and-says-more-government-support-needed-for-hospices","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/674573\/","title":{"rendered":"Wes Streeting opens London hospice ward and says ‘more government support needed’ for hospices"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\u00a9 Jeff Moore
\nWes Streeting Secretary of State for Health and Social Care vist to St Christopher\u2019s \u00a0<\/p>\n

Steve Smith\t\tCEO\u00a0
\nNeil Goulden\t\tChair of Trustees\u00a0
\nKatie Grace\u00a0\t\tClinical Team Lead and Matron\u00a0
\nMelissa\u00a0Channel\tAdvanced\u00a0Nurse\u00a0Practitioner\u00a0\u00a0
\nNicky Luff\t\tWard Manager\u00a0
\nAmy Elllis\t\tStaff Nurse\u00a0
\nGenevieve\u00a0Thomas\tHealth\u00a0Care Assistant\u00a0
\nJennifer\u00a0Morgan\tPatient\u00a0<\/p>\n

St Christopher\u2019s Hospice in South London welcomes Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to officially open new ward<\/p>\n

St Christopher\u2019s Hospice, the home of the modern hospice movement, was pleased to welcome Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, to open their new ward in December.<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting met with the hospice\u2019s Chief Executive, Steve Smith, Chair of the Board of Trustees, Neil Goulden, and Ward Matron Katie Grace, alongside other clinical staff as he was shown the refurbishment of the hospice\u2019s Inpatient Unit, which is being partly funded by the government\u2019s capital funding grant for hospices in England. <\/p>\n

Liam Conlon MP, who represents the Beckenham and Penge constituency where St Christopher\u2019s is located, also attended the visit.<\/p>\n

Mr Streeting cut the ribbon as he officially re-opened Nuffield Ward which is the first of three wards to be refurbished. He also met with patients Jennifer Morgan and Jayshri Patel who were staying on the newly refurbished Nuffield Ward. <\/p>\n

St Christopher\u2019s Inpatient Unit, which is made up of three wards, is undergoing a \u00a33.6M upgrade, of which more than \u00a32M came from the government\u2019s emergency funding for hospices, announced in December 2024. <\/p>\n

The upgrades at St Christopher\u2019s are focused on improving the look and feel of the Inpatient Unit, making rooms bigger and more homely, and addressing essential infrastructure issues on a building which is almost 60 years old.<\/p>\n

The work also includes enhancing staff areas for the dedicated teams and the installation of a hoist system so people can be moved more safely and comfortably, whilst also protecting staff.<\/p>\n

In total, the government gave out \u00a3100M of capital funding to adult hospices in England over two years. <\/p>\n

Steve Smith, CEO of St Christopher\u2019s, says:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pleasure to have the Secretary of State visit St Christopher\u2019s today, to show him both the great work hospices do, and how we\u2019re putting the capital funding to use by investing in significant upgrades of our wards, ensuring those spaces are more welcoming and homely for the people staying with us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe hospice sector is really appreciative of this capital funding, which was announced last year, and the recognition shown by Mr Streeting and his department for the vital role hospices play in the healthcare sector.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the home of the modern hospice movement, and in line with the government\u2019s mission, we believe everyone across the country should have access to high-quality palliative and end of life care when they need it. For that to become a reality, hospices need a sustainable funding model and we were happy to discuss that with the Secretary of State during his visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, says: \u201cThis has been a visit I will never forget. I met some amazing people here at St Christopher\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a privilege to meet some of the patients who are approaching end of life, who\u2019ve been willing to share their experience of love and care and joy at what is inevitably a very difficult moment for them in their lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took a decision not long after I came into government as Health and Social Care Secretary that we were going to deliver the biggest hospice funding in a generation, \u00a3100M over two years to help hospices like this one to build the new facilities, the new kit, the new technology to provide better and more hospice care, either in great buildings like this or even in people\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I had the massive privilege of seeing how a decision we\u2019ve taken in government has translated into real change in practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe new ward is fantastic. It\u2019s going to make a real difference to people. And that combined with the \u00a380M we\u2019re putting into children\u2019s hospices over the next few years means that all of those charitable donations from the public are going to go even further to making a difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we need to do more as a government on hospices.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just want to say a massive thank you to the public for all of their kindness, all of their donations. Please keep giving to your local hospices if you can afford to do so, because it means that people at a very delicate stage in their lives will receive the love, the care, the support and the good death that everyone deserves.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u00a9 Jeff Moore Wes Streeting Secretary of State for Health and Social Care vist to St Christopher\u2019s \u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":674574,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,4884,257,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-674573","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-london","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115840305608817407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=674573"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/674573\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/674574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=674573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=674573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=674573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}