| A 'milestone' for hospice |
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| Written by Andrea O'Neill | ||||||
 KILBRYDE Hospice Appeal chairman Tony McGuinness says the charity has reached an “historic milestone” following approval from NHS Lanarkshire to build a hospice at Hairmyres hospital.The NHS Lanarkshire Board identified two available acres of land on the east side of the hospital at its December 2009 meeting, marking the first step towards creating new palliative care beds for people facing end-of-life illness. Tony, who has campaigned tirelessly for a six-bed palliative care facility at Hairmyres for many years, is thrilled his lifelong campaign is finally coming to fruition. He said: “We are delighted to have reached agreement with NHS Lanarkshire on the location of the new Kilbryde hospice on a two acre site at Hairmyres. “I would like to thank all the volunteers and friends of Kilbryde hospice for their invaluable assistance in reaching this historic milestone. “As we enter this exciting new phase in our development, I would ask for your continued support in the challenges ahead as we turn our dream into a reality.” Formal approval to lease the land to the Kilbryde hospice appeal will be sought from the NHS Lanarkshire board as part of the approval process before work on the new hospice can begin. The new building would offer patients and their relatives a high-quality environment that would be specially designed to meet the needs of patients requiring end-of-life care and would include a purpose-built enhanced day centre and drop-in service. Over time six palliative care beds would be developed to provide specialist palliative inpatient services. Services currently provided at the Kilbryde hospice Red Deer drop-In centre in Westwood would transfer to the new building once the first phase of the development is complete. EK MP Adam Ingram and EK MSP Andy Kerr paid tribute to Tony and his fundraising team. Mr Ingram said: “It’s a cold day, but this will warm the hearts of the people of South Lanarkshire. “It’s a major step forward after a lot of hard work and I pay tribute to Tony and all the volunteers who put so much effort into getting to this point.” Mr Kerr added: “I think confidence should flow throughout East Kilbride and South Lanarkshire about what we are doing here. We’ve really made a big step today. It’s a good mark for the new year that we got the site, so credit is due to NHS Lanarkshire, the hospice campaigners and, of course Tony McGuinness.” In April 2007, NHS Lanarkshire and the Kilbryde hospice appeal signed an agreement to work together to provide new palliative care services. This led to the opening of the Kilbryde hospice’s Red Deer drop-in centre in July 2008. The out-patient facility currently provides treatments, advice and support to people with a progressive illness such as cancer and neurological disorders. Ken Corsar, chairman of NHS Lanarkshire, said: “The Red Deer drop-in centre has been a real success story since opening in 2008. Now, the identification of land at Hairmyres for a new hospice building marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter for palliative care services in the area.”
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