St Vincent’s Hospice

St Vincent’s Hospice was the first to provide specialist palliative care in the counties of Renfrewshire in the west of Scotland. The Hospice originally opened in the town of Johnstone in January 1988 and moved to its present location in Howwood in March 1993. Since then, the scale and diversity of care has grown steadily. The Hospice has responded to the increasing demand for specialist palliative care by developing and expanding its services. As well as the In-Patient Unit, these include:

The Hospice is not so much a building as a concept of care, and we see many more people in the community and other settings than we do as in-patients. 

Caring for the family as well as the patient is one of our main aims and as well as home respite, we can offer brief arranged admission to provide breaks for carers.  Whilst a team of chaplains provides spiritual care, the Hospice itself is non-denominational, caring for patients of all religions or none.

It is open to all who have been diagnosed with a life-limiting illness including cancer, motor neurone disease and other progressive conditions, and have specialist palliative care needs. Patients can be referred by their GP, hospital consultant, specialist palliative care nurse or community nurse, or by self-referral.

St Vincent’s anticipated annual running costs in 2008 will be in the region of £2m. Although we have some financial support from our local Health Board, we depend heavily on the generosity of donors.

More than half of our operating costs and all of our current capital expenditure has to be raised through donations and legacies or from fundraising events and activities including local lottery, tearoom and charity shops.

The hospice is largely dependent upon the efforts of around 200 volunteers.