Building for the future
2007 Proved to be a wonderful celebration of 25 years of caring for Rowcroft Hospice. As a culmination of the celebrations, Rowcroft announced plans to carry out a vital rebuild of the in-patient unit and refurbishment of existing space to create an integrated out-patients facility. These exciting developments will ensure that the hospice can continue to provide the best possible quality of care for people in South Devon living with life-threatening illnesses.
The building will enable Rowcroft to provide:
• More single rooms to allow families to share precious moments privately with their loved ones. At the moment Rowcroft has only two single rooms. The new building will incorporate a total of 12 single rooms and two four bedded wards.
• En-suite facilities in every room giving patients far greater privacy, dignity and independence. Currently none of the in-patient facilities are en-suite and the 18 patients share the limited 5 WC’s.
Visitors often do not want to leave their loved ones overnight, and the new ward will enable families to stay together during this time:-
• All single rooms will have the facility to sleep one family member on a spare bed.
• One of the single rooms will be large enough to accommodate a double bed, allowing the patient and loved one to continue to be close, or allow two family members to stay with the patient through the night.
• The new building will incorporate a separate purpose built family flatlet, located above the inpatient unit. This will keep families close by, but will also provide them with a private space to retreat to.
Transforming Rowcroft through this building project will ensure that the hospice has the facilities and space to adapt its service in response to changing needs, support patient choice and above all offer the dignity, respect and comfort any one of us would wish for at such a time in our lives. A fundraising campaign to help the hospice build this vital facility will be launched this year when the planning stages are finalised.
