The History Of St Benedict's Hospice, Sunderland
St Benedict's Hospice began informally in 1980 at Havelock Hospital and officially became a hospice in 1984 when Sunderland Health Authority recognised the need to provide special treatment for cancer patients. With Dr Rolland Ramsay at the helm the hospice was soon established and became the first hospice in the North East of England. It was named after Benedict Bishop who founded a hospice and monastery on the banks of the River Wear in 674AD, where St Peter's Church, Monkwearmouth now stands.
The services provided by the hospice expanded with the extension of the Day Care Unit and the appointment of two Macmillan nurses in 1990, based at Sunderland District Hospital. In 1993 the hospice became a charity named Sunderland Cancer Relief and Denise Robertson agreed to become it's President, the name was later changed to St Benedict's Hospice, Sunderland. In June 1994 the hospice moved to much improved facilities at Monkwearmouth Hospital with an in-patient unit of 2 x 4 bedded rooms, 1 x 3 bedded room and five single rooms and also a 10 place Day Care Unit.
Palliative care had progressed in such a way that it was necessary once again to extend, adapt and refurbish the existing hospice to allow an increase in the level of quality of the services provided. The estimated cost of this refurbishment was £1.5 million and as we had already raised £750,000, an appeal was launched in May 2004 to raise the remaining £750,000. With the support of the community, the hospice lottery, pubs, clubs and various other groups the work was able to commence in April 2005, completed in November 2005 and was officially opened by our patron, the Duchess of Northumberland on November 14th 2005.
The refurbished hospice now has a total of 12 bed places comprising of 6 single rooms and 2 x 3 bedded rooms all with an en-suite shower and WC. A reduction in the maximum bed capacity was possible because of the increased specialist palliative care support, provided through the hospital and our community specialist nurses.