Charity Spotlight: Les Bourgs, the changing face of hospice care, three years to solve a funding gap

For nearly 35 years Les Bourgs has been supporting patients and their families while staying at the forefront of the changing needs of hospice care.

Now the charity is facing fresh challenges as it looks to continue its vital work and expand it out into the community to help meet a growing wish for people to be at home when they die.

It costs £3m. a year to run Les Bourgs, all of which is funded by charitable donations, including through its very successful shop and fundraising events, with no financial backing from the States.

But its funding model will now have to change with just three years of legacy donations left which are not being replaced to the same extent that they were, potentially because of cost of living pressures families are dealing with: “in three year’s time, there is no reserve,” said Les Bourgs CEO Rob Jones.

“The next iteration is one that's already started, we're talking to the States of Guernsey, we're talking to Health and Social Care to say, ‘what would a strategy look like for the island?’

“Because if we can get a strategy right that's based on the quality of patient care and support for the family, then we can put a number to it, and then we can work out how we share that."

In this episode of Dig This we explore how hospice care has evolved and what comes next. We also hear about the passion that drives those working at the hospice. 

Care Manager, Letishia Vermeulen said: “Isn't always a very grand gesture that you need to make to change somebody's quality of life and to make such a drastic difference to people every day, in every moment. If it is the patient, if it is the family members, you go away with a sense of satisfaction that you've made that difference on so many different levels.

“If it is comfort, if it is nutrition, [they might say] ‘I feel like having ice cream for breakfast today, please?’ Yes, absolutely. Do you want sprinkles on that? You know, it's simple things, a glass of wine with your supper in the evening, or creating a special menu because your illness is creating a lot of symptoms around eating and enjoying food, and it is such an important part for that person that you go out of your way to achieve that. 

“That takes a whole team, and everybody brings a specialty to that and we work together, it's like a puzzle that fits in together and with any of those pieces out of synch it affects it, but working together, everybody bringing their speciality together to provide the best care possible for that patient and that family."