Have your say on the future of one of Cambridgeshire’s key healthcare services

Arthur Rank Hospice Charity is inviting your thoughts about its services and asking what you think it should strive for in the future. The Charity is in the process of formulating its next five-year strategy which will be launched in 2022, coinciding with its 40th anniversary.

Barbara, a Healthcare Assistant at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity has a giggle with a patient receiving support from their Living Well Service.

Over the next decade more people in Cambridgeshire will be living with frailty, complex ill-health and palliative diagnoses’.

The Charity is keen to involve the people it serves, or may serve in the future, in the conversation. You are invited to either take part in an online survey or join them at a pre-appointed time, for a virtual group discussion via video call on Zoom.

What is the strategy for? 

The Strategy will create clear objectives for the Charity and will run until 2027, with the overall aim of ensuring that the best possible quality of life can be achieved for patients and their families, from diagnosis to the end of life. Your input will help decide the direction in which the Hospice’s care and services should develop in reaction to changing needs, together with dealing with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Who can add to the strategy? 

Critical to the plan will be ensuring that the organisation’s services are equitable and can be accessed by anyone living in Cambridgeshire who needs support for a life-limiting illness or end of life care. As such, the Charity is especially keen to hear from representatives of harder to reach communities and leaders from minority groups, as well as learn from patient and family members who may already be accessing its services, or who have received its care in the past.

Sharon Allen, CEO at Arthur Rank Hospice Charity, adds: “It is more important than ever that we open the conversation about ensuring a good death, alongside how we can live well (especially with a palliative diagnosis) until the end of our lives. Of course, we are looking at the big picture with our new five-year strategy as ultimately this is what will change the care and support at grassroots levels, for you, your loved ones, friends and neighbours.

"I hope that our community will engage with us. We want to hear what matters to them and ask that they share the opportunity to feed into our plans, with their networks. I am aware that not everyone will feel comfortable joining a virtual discussion (although really encourage people to join what will be an informal conversation), so the online survey is relatively quick to respond to and easy to share. Even if chatting about our strategy work opens-up a never previously discussed subject between two people, it has the potential to make a real difference to someone’s life and future death.”

How you can get involved

To fill out the online survey, visit arhc.org.uk/strategy-survey.

To join a Virtual Session (which will take place over Zoom) please email fran.gibbons@arhc.org.uk or call 01223 675802, specifying the date you wish to join, choosing from:

  • Tuesday 18 May (11.00am-12.00pm)

  • Tuesday 8 June (1.00pm-2.00pm)

  • Saturday 12 June (10.00am-11.00am)

  • Thursday 17 June (4.00pm-5.00pm)

  • Monday 21 June (4.00pm-5.00pm)

  • Wednesday 14 July (9.00am-10.00am)

  • Tuesday 20 July (12.30pm-1.30pm)

  • Friday 23 July (2.00pm-3.00pm).



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