Pilgrims Hospices delighted to announce modernisation project at its premises in London Road, Canterbury
Pilgrims Hospices is delighted to announce that it is launching a project to modernise its premises in London Road, Canterbury.
Modernising London Road will safeguard Pilgrims Hospices’ long-term presence in the heart of Canterbury, providing quality end-of-life care as it has done for over 40 years, at a site that is much valued by the community.
This means that we will no longer be pursuing the option of a new build hospice at the Saxon Fields site in Thanington.
Despite everyone’s best efforts and intentions, external factors over a number of years have meant that we have been unable to progress the build.
Modernising our Canterbury site will ensure that the facilities for patients, families, staff and volunteers at Canterbury will meet the future needs of our community. These will be the first major works undertaken at our Canterbury site in a number of years.
Whilst this project is positive, nothing operationally is going to change in the next two years at London Road.
Modernising London Road will allow Pilgrims Hospices’ remarkable legacy to continue on the very site that our founder, Ann Robertson, established over 40 years ago. Focusing our attention on modernising our London Road site will ensure our long-term future, providing quality hospice care in the heart of Canterbury, which is one of our core principles.Helen Bennett, Chief Executive of Pilgrims Hospices
The first step in this positive project is to prepare detailed plans for the modernisation of the site and submit a planning application to Canterbury City Council. We are appointing a specialist project team, including architects with a proven track record of hospice design.
We will involve staff and volunteers in helping to design the modernised premises over the next few months, and hope to present our proposals to our valued staff, volunteers, supporters, and to the wider public, later in the year.
It will take at least two years for us to obtain planning permission, undertake detailed design work and appoint a construction partner. Throughout this time, our services will not be impacted at all.
We are extremely grateful to The Tory Family Foundation for this significant donation. This donation will make a massive difference to supporting the work Pilgrims Hospices is already doing and what we want to achieve in the future.Karen Warden, Chair of Pilgrims Hospices Trustees
Inpatient services will inevitably be affected during the construction period, but we will be developing plans to ensure that the impact on patients is minimised. It is important to remember that the vast majority of how we support patients takes place in the community, and this will continue without any disruption. We will support patients and families for the duration of the modernisation project, and will provide full updates throughout the project.
The modernisation project has been in part enabled by an extremely generous donation made by the Tory Family Foundation. The £4 million donation is the largest single donation ever received by Pilgrims Hospices.
We will keep everyone updated on the progress of this positive project on our website.
In the meantime, we will aim to be here for every patient, every family, every time they need us.
We would like to thank our community, who help fund our day-to-day running costs, delivering so much to so many people across east Kent.
Pilgrims Hospices have always been special in our hearts, and we are thrilled to support them in this way. We all know the pressures that hospices are facing currently, and are delighted to support one of the corner stones of the community in Canterbury. We will be very excited to see the progress made on their London Road site, and look forward to visiting the modernised premises.James Tory, Trustee of The Tory Family Foundation
