Covid crisis leads to job losses at leading Sussex hospice

Staff at St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley are facing job losses because of a massive drop in income caused by the Covid crisis.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Work is being scaled back and plans for a new building in Pease Pottage are also being put on hold becuase of the ‘huge strain on income.’

Hospice chief executive Giles Tomsett in a statement today said: “Throughout the pandemic, we have been as focused as ever on helping local people who are facing the very worst of times while supporting the wider NHS and I want to thank every one of you who has supported us through this time.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“But despite all your amazing support, Covid-19 has placed a huge strain on our income and we’ve had to make the tough decision to change our plans for the next few years to adapt to this changed world.

St Catherine's HospiceSt Catherine's Hospice
St Catherine's Hospice

“Although we’re having to scale down our work to reflect our new situation, our ambition has not changed, including our intention to build a new hospice for our community when the time is right.

“We want to make sure that we can reach even more people who are facing death and bereavement in the future, so that nobody in our community has to face death and loss alone.”

He said the hospice was predicting a £1.5 million drop in income this year and added: “The virus has meant that our ambition to help even more people affected by death and dying has been severely impacted.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Our new hospice build has been delayed and we are considering how we operate the services we currently run to best help the people who need us.”

He said some hospice staff had been put on furlough at the start of the pandemic.

“Because Covid-19 has severely hit our income, we will have a lot less to spend on our hospice services in the medium term, and we’ll have to limit how we deliver our activities – Sadly, including reducing the number of people in our wonderful team, and considering how we may adapt our services.

“It is difficult to make changes like this at our hospice, which has done such crucial work for terminally ill and bereaved people in our community over nearly 40 years, but, sadly, unavoidable if we want to make sure that St Catherine’s keeps operating successfully for another 40 years.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

He added:“We will be reducing our expenditure right across the charity so that we are as efficient as we can be during these tough times. And we will have less of our amazing team here at the hospice.

“The people who work at St Catherine’s are professional, dedicated and invariably brilliant. We are the place we are because of them, and because of their passion, humanity, bravery and love.

“Working at the hospice is so much more than a job to them. So to have to reduce our numbers is tough.

“We’re right at the start of this process and we’ll know more about specific changes in the coming months. What I do know is that while we are scaling back, we will work hard to make sure this is only temporary.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Our ambition to reach everyone affected by death and dying remains alive and we are determined to succeed.”

Meanwhile, he said, the hospice management team was doing all it could to secure more funding.

Hospice trustees chairman Terry O’Leary said: “I have personal experience of the wonderful care which St Catherine’s provides, so to make this decision is incredibly painful for our trustees, chief executive and for everyone involved with the hospice.”