Our Future Hospice

The need for compassionate end-of-life care is growing, and at St Michael’s Hospice, we are rising to meet this challenge. We are building a new hospice so that everyone in Hastings and Rother who needs our support has access to the highest quality care, now and for years to come.

This new building will allow us to do our best work for and with you, expand the reach of our services, and create a lasting legacy, shaping our collective future underpinned by the Hospice values of kindness, respect, inclusivity, and innovation. By creating this new space, we are investing in a better future for everyone in our community who needs us — a future where living well, right to the end of life, is a reality for all.

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Your questions answered

We have answered the most commonly asked questions below. If you have a question that isn’t listed below, please contact us on futurehospice@stmichaelshospice.com.

We’re still working towards a final decision on the location of the new Hospice. Our current site at Upper Maze Hill remains a strong contender but we’re also reviewing a shortlist of potential alternative sites in Hastings, though each option — including our current site — comes with its own challenges. This is a significant and complex decision, and we want to make sure we get it right. We appreciate our community’s patience and understanding as we work towards making the best decision for the future of St Michael’s Hospice.

We’ve been looking as far west as the Bexhill to Hastings link road (Combe Valley Way), up to The Ridge, and as far east as Ore.

Yes, there are no plans to change the name. St Michael’s Hospice will continue to be the name that represents our care and commitment to the community.

We understand that when people think of a hospice, they often associate the number of beds with the level of care we provide. However, it’s important to note that In-Patient Unit care is just one part of the services we offer at St Michael’s Hospice. Our community services — which support patients in the place they call home, via phone, or through face-to-face outpatient appointments at the Hospice — now account for about two-thirds of the patients we care for. We’ve adapted to the growing demand for our community services, and a new building will help us expand our reach in the community even further.

In the new building, we’re aiming for 14 bedrooms, all on the ground floor — three more than our current ground floor, which has space for 11 patients.

While there are additional bedrooms on the second floor of our current building, these are not in use as we cannot afford to staff beds across two floors. Doing so would require recruiting more nurses, which has been challenging in recent times due to the national nursing shortage (we’re pleased to now have a fully staffed in-patient unit). It would also require providing extra equipment, supplies, and drugs, as well as increased maintenance costs.

By investing in a new building, we also aim to create an improved working environment for our team, which will help us retain and attract people to our workforce.

We don’t know for certain at this stage, as several factors will influence the overall cost. We’ve always known that one day we’d need to make a significant investment in our building, and we’ve set aside financial reserves to start the project. However, we expect to need to raise at least £10 million, in addition to the millions we need to raise each year to keep our services running.

Hospices have been facing growing financial pressures for several years, with state funding not keeping pace with the rising costs of providing services. While our local community has always stepped up to support St Michael’s Hospice, the ongoing cost-of-living crisis has made fundraising and financial planning more challenging than ever. As part of the current project work, we’re assessing the costs and benefits of building at Upper Maze Hill versus other locations.

During the building of the new hospice, we will do everything possible to maintain the high standard of care you expect. We are committed to providing our full range of services throughout the entire project.

If we stay at our current site, there are no plans to move or change anything in the gardens.

We’ve made every effort to contact people associated with interments where we have the correct contact details. For further information on interments in the gardens, please refer to the article here [insert hyperlink to Information for people connected with interments article].

The new hospice building will take time to complete, as there’s a lot of work to do and funds to raise. Currently, we expect to move into the new building in 2031.

We’d love to hear from you! You can contact us by emailing futurehospice@stmichaelshospice.com

Keep up to date on Our Future Hospice news by signing up to our monthly e-newsletter or bi-annual print newsletter. You can also follow us on our social media channels Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn for project updates.

Get in touch

We’d love to hear from you whether you have questions about the project or ideas to share. You can get in touch or stay up to date with the latest news in the following ways:

  • email futurehospice@stmichaelshospice.com
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  • save this page as a bookmark – we’ll be updating this page as we have news to share.