Pilgrims Hospices has been providing vital care and support to people with life-limiting illnesses, their families and carers for over two decades.
We are a key part of the east Kent community, providing valuable care services through our three hospices, our home nursing team and in our day hospices.
All of our services can be accessed free of charge and we hope to continue to do this for generations to come. This is the vision of the Pilgrims Hospices Trustees and the staff.
Vision/Mission
Vision;
To be regarded as the leading provider of hospice and specialist palliative care services for the people of east Kent and to promote the delivery of palliative care across this area.
Mission;
To sustain, develop and deliver a full range of in-patient, day hospice, community support, bereavement and pastoral care from our hospice sites at Canterbury, Thanet and Ashford.
In order to achieve this, we need to carry out activities in four clearly defined but inter-linked areas, called Cornerstones. The focus of all our activity should be the patient, families and carers.
Plan
Pilgrims Hospices has launched a plan which outlines the direction of the charity for the next five years, from 2009 - 2014. The documents below describe what we want to achieve and how we plan to get there:
Pilgrims Hospices – The Way Forward In Brief
This executive summary provides an overview of our five year plan. The full versions are available at www.pilgrimshospice.org under Publications. Paper versions will be available via managers for staff and volunteers.
Approximately 6,000 people die each year in east Kent. Around 2,000 of these die from a cancer-related cause. Of the remaining 4,000, the greater number will die from progressive and chronic diseases other than cancer, such as heart disease, stroke, respiratory disease and a range of other illnesses.
We believe that Pilgrims Hospices can not only contribute to improving the quality of end of life care for cancer patients but also for an increasing number of patients with progressive, non-cancer illnesses and contribute to better support for their carers and families.
Our vision is to be regarded as the leading provider of specialist palliative care and end of life care services for the people of east Kent and to promote the delivery of palliative care across this area, and in so doing:
- To facilitate everyone to have the best possible end of life experience.
- To enable people to be treated as individuals, with dignity and respect, and to be free of pain and other symptoms.
- To enable people to express their preferences about where to end their life so that these can be taken into account in decision-making and planning.
- To enable their informal carers to be better informed, prepared and supported during the course of illness and into bereavement.
- Our vision will be achieved by meeting the following objectives, which are to:
- Increase numbers of patients and equity of access to hospice services, particularly the number of patients referred with a diagnosis other than cancer.
- Ensure the delivery of flexible and responsive services.
- Take a stronger leadership role in palliative and end of life care.
- Recruit, develop and retain a motivated and skilled workforce.
- Implement a proactive marketing and communications strategy.
- Establish a modern information and communications system.
- Generate sustainable funding.
We believe Pilgrims Hospices has an excellent reputation, because what we do is so important and necessary, because our staff and volunteers are dedicated, and because our local community supports us by volunteering and raising funds. Our plans are designed to ensure that Pilgrims Hospices continue to meet people’s needs and expectations both now and in the future. This strategic plan is therefore a combination of continuity and change – continuity in maintaining high standards of care; change in wanting to deliver more services to meet the changing needs and expectations of the people we serve.
