Lunchtime Speaker – Tammy Stacey – Woking Hospice

Waking and Sam Beare Hospice provided excellent care in the ng Notes This week’s speaker was Tammy Stracey, who is Clinical Director of Woking & Sam Beare Hospice (WSBH). Tammy has had 25 years experience in nursing. For most of her career she was an intensive care nurse. She was first introduced to the Hospice when her mother-in-law needed its services and she was very impressed by it. Later she applied for the post of Clinical Director when the position became vacant. She is clearly enjoying her new role. WBSH cares for people with life-limiting and terminal illness. Currently 70% of its patients are cared for in their own homes, but the Hospice also has 20 in-patient beds situated in individual rooms with en-suite bathrooms. Some patients come into the hospice for treatment and then go home. The emphasis is on living well and palliative care. The Hospice also provides help to families of patients, since caring for a person with a terminal illness can present a great many challenges. Bereavement counselling is also offered for a period after a patient has died. The hospice costs about £10m a year to run. Around £2.5m p.a is met by the NHS. The rest must be raised through fund-raising. This includes the shops, of which there are now 19 plus an e-bay shop, donations, the hospice’s own lottery and fundraising events like the Dove Ball. Tammy told us about the project to help people with dysphagia where patients have difficulty in swallowing. The Head Chef recently went on a course at the Gordon Ramsey Institute where he learned about new techniques to deal with it. As a result, WBSH has launched a project to deal with it. This will cost £8,000 including training and equipment. The two Woking Rotary clubs are making financial contributions towards the project and additionally there will be a Rotary Foundation grant. Next Sunday, there will be PSA blood tests at the Hospice organised by Rotary Club of Woking with the help of the Hospice. The test helps to detect signs of prostate cancer, which is common in older men. Volunteers are needed. Terry Smith gave the vote of thanks. He paid tribute to the valuable work that the hospice does and thanked Tammy very much for her talk