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St. Columba’s plans to rebuild the Hospice, to provide new, state of the art hospice facilities, which will ensure that we remain at the forefront of palliative care services.
Although state of the art when they were first opened in 1977, our existing facilities now need to be upgraded. Our specialist nurses, doctors and allied health professionals, along with many support staff, provide the highest possible quality of care. We need to rebuild the hospice to ensure that our facilities match this and support the delivery of the best possible palliative care to our patients.
Our new development will enable the Hospice to maintain its place as a leader in palliative care services.
Plans for the rebuild were submitted to the City of Edinburgh Council’s Planning Department in November 2008 and are available to view online. They include a complete rebuild of the Hospice’s in-patient unit, improving the quality of facilities available to patients, and ensuring the in-patient unit is available to more people who need the Hospice’s help and support.
In fact, all of our services will benefit from the new development; out-patient services will benefit from a greater number of consulting rooms. Upgraded and expanded facilities will support the work of our much valued Day Hospice and the adjacent site at 17 Boswall Road gives St. Columba’s Hospice the opportunity to develop a brand new education wing, with a new lecture theatre and seminar rooms providing a platform to further develop the Hospice’s already successful education programmes.
St. Columba’s community palliative care nurses will, as always, continue to provide support to patients in their own homes.
We look forward to updating these pages as the project develops.
November 2008
Frequently Asked Questions about the Hospice Redevelopment
Q1. Why are you rebuilding the hospice?
Our existing hospice facility was expected to last for 25 year and that was 30 years ago.
Palliative Care has changed and developed over the years and in order to provide the
best possible facilities to support the high standard of care provided by our specialist
multi-disciplinary team, we need to rebuild the hospice.
Q.2 Why not move to a new site?
Our location here is ideal and was chosen because of its access to sea views and
garden areas. Now, 30 years on, we have well established links in the area; both
professionally and with local supporters.
Q3. How does the proposal improve facilities?
The proposed design increases the amount of space available for patients. This gives us
the opportunity to offer more flexible care, increasing the services we provide and
helping more people
Q4. What facilities will be available in the new Hospice development?
St. Columba’s plans to build a new 30 bed in-patient unit, day hospice, education wing
and base for the community palliative care nurses who work in the community,
supporting people in their own homes. The Hospice will also be providing facilities for
support departments from catering and laundry, to accounts and fundraising.
Q5. Why are you still only having 30 in-patient beds?
We are advised by the Health Board that there will be a need for 30 beds going forward.
We receive approximately 50 % of our funding from the Health Board. However, we will
be changing the configuration of the rooms so that we have a far greater number of
single rooms and will move to 3 bedded instead of 4 bedded rooms. This will increase
our occupancy rates and, therefore, more people will be able to access the specialist
help and support provided at St. Columba’s.
Q6. How will having more single rooms and smaller room sizes make this possible?
It is quite simple really. At the moment we may be unable to admit a male patient as we
only have beds available in a female ward, and vice versa. If we have more single rooms
and move to 3 bedded, from 4 bedded wards we will have much more flexibility in who
we can admit at any given time.
Q7. Will any other services be extended or developed?
Our out-patient service will be extended which will enable us to help more people in
need of our services. We will also be redeveloping our education wing as sharing our
specialist skills and knowledge is an important part of the ethos of St. Columba’s
Hospice. Although the in-patient unit will still have 30 beds we are redesigning the space
to have a far greater number of single rooms and fewer beds in shared rooms.
Q8. What will the impact be on parking in the surrounding streets?
Overall the proposal increases the amount of parking available. Off street parking at 17
Boswall Road and there will be an increase in the amount of accessible parking on the
Challenger site.
Q9. Is the new hospice going to be environmentally sustainable?
Where practical, sustainable features such as rainwater recycling and solar panels, will
be incorporated into the design. However our priority is providing the highest standard of
care to our patients and their families. Also, Challenger Lodge and 17 Boswall Road are
both listed buildings and we are therefore required to restore and reinstate the buildings
to their original state.
Q10. How long will the construction last?
We are planning for the development to be done in three phases, allowing us to have
beds available to our patients throughout. Each phase is anticipated to last for several
months and progress will be closely monitored.
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