The Voice of Spalding and South Holland
An appeal has been launched to rejuvenate a vital Spalding service – and you can play a part either financially or even with your camera.
The Tulip Suite provides end of life care at the Johnson Hospital.
But the four rooms that have been an oasis for families in the last 12 years haven’t been refurbished since the hospital opened.
Now the charity the Spalding Hospice Foundation that oversees them is looking for £10,000 to renovate each room.
But it’s not just funds they’re appealing for; they also want four pictures can be used to create feature walls in each room.
Originally the current Johnson Hospital wasn’t going to have a palliative care suite, but Spalding Hospice Foundation members successfully fought for them to be included after seeing the work the Butterfly Hospice does at Boston’s Pilgrim Hospital.
Members of the original group remain with the Spalding Hospice Foundation they set up today.
“At the moment the wards are just normal hospital rooms,” a spokesman said. “We want to provide more comfortable furniture including specialist chairs, tea and coffee facilities and an electric bed
“But we’d also like to put an image that would fill one wall opposite the bed.
“There’s a picture of the Welland in a unit nearby, and we’d like something like that in every room.
“It would be a pleasant and calming scene to give a patient something to look at while in the room.
“We’d love for photographers to send us their pictures for consideration.”
As part of the appeal the Spalding Hospice Foundation has published a new video.
It states “The Tulip Suite has been in use for 12 years and served the community well, but it’s now time for a refresh, enhancing the patients stay, making the facilities comfortable and a little more user friendly.
“There’s a variety of furniture and equipment we’d like to buy including a reclining chair to enable patients and their families to go outside and enjoy the fresh air on our very under-used balcony.
“Each of the four rooms will cost around £10,000 to refurbish and hospitals get very little statutory funding so help and support locally is very important.
“The Tulip Suite is on the doorstep but you may not know its there until a friend or family member needs our local loving care.”
Donations can be made by visiting www.spaldinghospicefoundation.co.uk
Entries for the photography competition can be emailed to dickiebaker@btinternet.com
The deadline for entries is Tuesday, February 14.
