Today, Our Lady’s Hospice & Care Services provides specialist care for a catchment of over million people with a wide range of needs, from residential rehabilitation to end-of-life care, from our bases in Harold’s Cross (est. 1879), Blackrock (est. 2003) and Wicklow (est. 2020).
What has changed most over the years is the population we serve. As people are now living longer and have more complex care needs, healthcare professionals must provide even more specialist facilities and services of the highest quality to meet these critical requirements.
The organisation is undertaking the most ambitious multi-phase project in our history; the redevelopment of our palliative care unit in Harold’s Cross, the establishment of a new hospice in Wicklow, the refurbishment of our palliative care unit in Blackrock and the evolution of our community-based services to meet growing demands and anticipated future needs.
Our progress to date
- In 2018, we officially opened our new 36 single room state-of-the-art specialist palliative care unit in Harold’s Cross, completing phase one in our redevelopment plans. 100% of the building costs (€13.6 million) were funded through the generosity of our donors who continue to be at the heart of all that we do. We are truly grateful to all our donors without whose support these ambitious plans could not be realised.
Continuing our vision
- We are committed to realising our vision of providing, with loving care, the highest quality, person-centred community services for all those who need it across our catchment area of over one million people in Dublin and Wicklow.
Our Goals
We need to raise over €5.5 million every single year in multi-annual gifts from individuals, businesses and foundations to support our services. This support will be critical as part of our ambitious investment vision so that by our 150th anniversary in 2029 we will have achieved:
In 2018, we officially opened our new 36 single room state-of-the-art specialist palliative care unit in Harold’s Cross, completing phase one in our redevelopment plans. 100% of the building costs (€13.6 million) were funded through the generosity of our donors who continue to be at the heart of all that we do. We are truly grateful to all our donors without whose support these ambitious plans could not be realised.
In December 2020, Wicklow Hospice welcomed its first in-patients in December 2020. A bank loan of €2.75 million was required to complete the build of this new 15 bed hospice. Fundraising is urgently required to cover the bank loan and will fund on-going vital patient and family enhancements as well as minor capital requirements.
The refurbishment of Blackrock Hospice commenced in 2022 with works include extending the 12 patient bedrooms and upgrades to clinical, patient and staff areas. Estimated cost is c. €7 million and will be funded through fundraising.
2023 onwards: Looking across our all services, we are developing new community-focussed ‘out patients’ models of care to enable us to see more patients across our rheumatology, older persons and palliative services in the most effective and efficient setting for their needs.
We are seeing an increased demand for Older Persons Services in particular for our dementia respite services. We increased our respite service and introduced an outpatient dementia support service (DSS).
We will adapt to meet future demand by increasing our outpatient capacity so we can deliver care in the right place at the right time while enhancing care in the community and adapting many Sláintecare initiatives.
These progressive and ambitious developments will become the template for new community hospice developments in Ireland and form the basis of our specialist community services over the coming decades.
Work has commenced on our next five year plan, covering 2023 – 2028 and we are at the final stages of refreshing a master development plan for all our services.