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Theme: Our care and services

A big thank you to our nurses for International Nurses Day!

May 10, 2022 | 9:14pm


Thanks to all of the incredible hospice nurses who chose to work at St Ann’s Hospice, for their hard work, commitment, expertise and compassion. On this day we celebrate the amazing contribution that our nurses make to the lives of so many patients and their families, and thank them for their contribution.
As a nurse, and Director of Clinical Services at St Ann’s Hospice, I am proud of our team, and to work in organisation which invests in nursing, their development, their well-being and their growth.



Emma Dixon, Director of Clinical Services

Rachel McMillan’s latest blog – Collaborations for the future

March 30, 2022 | 4:21pm

Look at the recent partnership with Greggs and Primark, for example – sausage rolls and t-shirts don’t have an obvious synergy, but their collaboration has been reported in the press and on social media too, with sales doing brilliantly. Their partnership is definitely not a pasty… 

But, many people don’t realise that in health and social care, partnerships are critical to what we do too.  Working in collaboration with others is the best way to ensure excellent care for patients and it’s vitally important. 

With headlines rightly focusing on the NHS, especially during the pandemic, we’re all acutely aware of resourcing and pressures that teams are under. 

But, when thinking of that big health and social care picture, it’s also important to remember charities and other organisations who work alongside the NHS to ensure patients and those closest to them receive the very best holistic care. Partnerships are key to enable care that truly wraps around the patient whether in hospital, in the place they call home, or out in the community. 


At St Ann’s, collaboration is also at the heart of everything we do.  Whether that’s supporting NHS colleagues or sharing our specialist knowledge and expertise, working alongside others is incredibly important. 


A great example I’m really proud of is that we’ve recently joined forces with The Christie to provide chemotherapy services and other anti-cancer treatments at our Little Hulton hospice site.  In practice, this means that some patients who live in Salford or near to Little Hulton no longer need to cross the city to go to The Christie hospital for their treatment.  They can simply come to our hospice instead. 


We’ve had great feedback from the patients who have done so, including one man who lives in Little Hulton and was thrilled he could walk to and from his treatment, rather than have to get multiple buses.  It may sound like a simple project, but it’s one that has really improved the experiences of local patients, and that makes us proud. 


We’ve also been working with members of the homeless community in the city centre, helping to improve the experiences of homeless people who may need palliative or end of life care.  Teaming up with professionals from across the sector, whilst sharing our specialist knowledge, has meant that we’ve been able to improve the lives of homeless patients, whilst also helping to ensure that their needs and wishes are better met, especially as they near the end of their life.  This can only be achieved with a fully joined up approach, working with the various agencies and individuals, to achieve the best outcomes. 

There’s also a really exciting partnership in progress with the University of Salford, who we’ve collaborated with to deliver an exciting palliative care focused leadership and management masters programme for clinical leaders and future leaders.  It’s really great to be able to share our knowledge and expertise with others, and to help equip healthcare professionals with the tools to deliver even better care for patients and those closest to them. 

Collaborations like these take time to build and deliver, and they’re not always talked about as much as the sausage rolls and t-shirts of this world might be.  But, with them, the care patients and their families receive is truly better, and that’s definitely worth shouting about. 

Find out more about our different services and partnerships

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Rachel McMillan’s latest blog – Making a Will

March 16, 2022 | 10:15am
Rachel McMillan sat in the hospice gardenholding a metal forget-me-not

At the hospice, we always encourage open, honest conversations about advance planning for the future. Whether that’s what is most important to a person in terms of their current goals or priorities, or what they would like to happen as they approach the end of their life and when they die. 

Conversations about death and dying aren’t always easy.  People often instinctively want to shy away from talking about it. But, if we want to make sure that people receive the same high quality of care and support at the end of their life as they do when they are born, then it’s really important that we have those conversations. It’s also important that people have those conversations with those closest to them too. 

One very practical part of that process is making a Will. Many people don’t have one, but it’s a much simpler process than people think, and gives real peace of mind too. 

To help local people get their affairs in order, this March, we’re joining forces with local solicitors who have kindly agreed to waive their usual fee and provide a free Will writing service, in return for a donation to St Ann’s.   

Our Will Month is really easy to take part in and you can sign up now – simply choose a solicitor from our list, make an appointment to turn your wishes into a Will, and make your donation to the hospice.   

We’re really privileged that many people choose to remember us as part of their lasting legacy in their Will.  Just 1% of a person’s estate left to a charity like ours makes a big difference, and around a third of the care we provide is funded by the kind gifts we receive from Wills. You don’t need to leave St Ann’s a gift to take part in Will Month, but we’re always very appreciative to anyone who does think of us in this way. 

A few minutes taken putting your Will together can make a huge difference to those around you.  And, by taking part in Will Month and making a donation in lieu of the usual solicitor fees, you’ll be making a huge difference to the lives of the people we support at the hospice too.  Thank you. 

Have you made your Will?

You can find details of how to make a Will this Will Month by clicking below or by calling the Fundraising Team on 0161 498 3631. 

Click here




Our new hospice plans have received a boost thanks to a generous grant

March 16, 2022 | 10:04am

The ambitious project, which will see our current outdated building on St Ann’s Road North replaced with a purpose-built modern facility on land adjacent to our current site, has been awarded £250,000 by the Foundation to create a specialist Centre for Palliative Care Education on the development. 

The bespoke training suite, supported with funding from the Wolfson Foundation, will be the only non-university healthcare training suite in the area with integrated technology and capacity to simulate real life scenarios, allowing experts from St Ann’s to share their specialist knowledge with other organisations and help drive excellence in the palliative and end of life care sector both locally and nationally. 


We’re hugely grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for this generous contribution to our new building.  The training suite is a hugely important part of the project and will be a real hub for education and excellence when it comes to the provision of palliative and end of life care. 

The Centre for Palliative Care Education will also contribute to the long-term sustainability of the hospice as a valuable source of additional income, as we share our specialist world-class knowledge with others, and also invite external parties to use the facilities to run their own training and development.  We also hope it will become a useful hub for local community groups and other service providers from around the area.

It’s vital we create this new purpose-built hospice that will serve the needs of our community both now and in the future.   

Local people deserve the very best facilities when receiving care or spending time with their loved ones, and our current building – which is more than 100 years old – is no longer fit for purpose.  If we don’t build this new facility there’s a real risk we’d need to close services in the near future, so the generosity of organisations like the Wolfson Foundation is vital to ensure we can continue to provide care for generations to come.

We’re so excited that this project is progressing at pace, and we are looking forward to starting to build later this year.  We are currently appealing for other organisations, businesses or individuals who feel they may also be able to support us as we create Greater Manchester’s new hospice to get in touch. We’d love to hear from you and have you join us on this exciting journey.


Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of the hospice

The new hospice building will also comprise a 27-bed inpatient unit, including 21 en-suite bedrooms with access to private outdoor terraces.  The development will feature modern outpatient and day therapy services, dedicated bereavement and family support spaces, offices, a coffee shop which will be open to the public, landscaped gardens, and improved car parking. 

The new building has been designed with the environment in mind, being ecologically efficient, using the latest green initiatives including a green roof, PV panelling and grey water solutions. The car park will have electric charging points and plentiful room for bicycles. 

The Wolfson Foundation is an independent charity with a focus on research and education.  Its aim is to support civil society by investing in excellent projects in science, health, heritage, humanities and the arts.  Since it was established in 1955, some £1billion (£2billion in real terms) has been awarded to more than 12,000 projects throughout the UK, all on the basis of expert review. 


St Ann’s have long provided high quality end of life care and this admirable project will allow the hospice to provide that care in an excellent environment. We are particularly pleased to be supporting the education centre which will support brilliantly trained staff to serve, not just in the new hospice, but across North West England.


Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive of the Wolfson Foundation

Find out more

For more information about our plans for the new hospice and how you can support it please click the link below.

Click here




St Ann’s Lymphoedema Specialist featured on international news site

March 7, 2022 | 10:30am


When lymphoedema treatments go well, the outcomes can be life-changing. It could be a reduction in the size of a limb, wearing shoes to go to a family meal, easing a swallow or teaching family how to provide gentle massage of oedematous limbs for a loved one approaching the end of life.


Fiona Sanderson, Macmillan Lymphoedema Specialist at St Ann’s

This week is Lymphoedema Awareness Week (6th – 11th March, which was kicked off with World Lymphoedema Day on Sunday 6th March.

Lymphoedema is a swelling that develops as a result of an impaired lymphatic system. It is estimated that lymphoedema affects between 263,000  – 422,000 people in the UK. Primary lymphoedema is rare, but secondary lymphoedema (caused as a result of cancer or other illnesses) is much more common.

To mark the start of this week, Fiona Sanderson, St Ann’s Macmillan Lymphoedema Specialist, told ehospice all about lymphoedema, how teams can work together to better support people and also shared how we’re pioneering new ways of working to improve lymphoedema care at our hospice.

You can read the article online here on ehospice.


Everyone’s goals and priorities are different, so it’s important to discuss these with the person you’re supporting to understand what would make a big difference in their life, or what they are working towards, so you can focus on managing or alleviating symptoms to make these things possible.


Fiona Sanderson, Macmillan Lymphoedema Specialist at St Ann’s

Support for you

When you’re living with a life-limiting illness, you can experience physical, psychological, emotional or social issues which mean that you don’t quite feel like you.

The Being You Centre at St Ann’s is here to help you get back to feeling like yourself again.

Find out about The Being You Centre




St Ann’s is rated ‘outstanding’ by the CQC

February 2, 2022 | 2:24pm

St Ann’s cares for people from across Greater Manchester and parts of Cheshire from its sites in Little Hulton and Heald Green as well as via a range of community and outreach services.

We welcomed assessors to our Salford site in November, and the CQC has this week confirmed the ‘outstanding’ rating for our Little Hulton hospice. 

Comments in the report from the independent assessors included praise for staff who: “…treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions”.   

Feedback also said that the St Ann’s team: “…provided emotional support to patients, families and carers and went above and beyond what would have been expected to meet individuals needs and wishes.” 

The hospice is a charity, and we collaborate closely with colleagues in the NHS and other health and social care professionals to ensure local people can access specialist palliative and end of life care when they need it most. 

St Ann’s was also recently recognised with an Investors in People Gold Award, and in the last twelve months has also been shortlisted for, or won, a range of regional and national awards for its work.   


I’m extremely proud of everyone in the St Ann’s team for this incredible achievement, and it was amazing and humbling to read the feedback from the independent CQC inspectors. 

It’s real testament to the hard work and dedication of staff and volunteers who have made sure that our patients and their families have continued to receive the very best care, even throughout the additional challenges of the pandemic.   They’ve worked so hard on the front line to ensure care could continue. 

I’m proud every day to be part of such a fantastic team.  Whilst it has been challenging to keep on delivering outstanding care whilst raising the £20,000 a day we need to fundraise to keep those services going, everyone across the organisation – whatever their role – has really stepped up and pulled together to achieve that.  Our patients are at the heart of everything we do, and I’m so pleased that the outstanding levels of specialist care we provide have been recognised in this way.


Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s

These include being a regional winner at the GM Chamber Excellence Awards for best Problem Solver which highlighted work our teams had done to innovate and adapt in response to the pandemic – both from a care and fundraising point of view.  The hospice then also went on to win the national Winner of Winners award. 

We were also a finalist in the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Awards for our innovative service providing palliative and end of life care support to homeless people in the city, and received the Mayor’s Special Recognition Award in acknowledgement of the value of the project on the lives of the people the team cares for.   

After celebrating our 50th anniversary last year, St Ann’s is also embarking on a project to build a new site in Heald Green, to replace its current building there which has been a hospice for more than half a century and is no longer fit for the future. 


It’s an exciting time in our history, as we embark on our ambitious plans both for the new building in Heald Green, but also to ensure our services continue to meet the future care needs of generations of local people to come. Huge thanks to everyone who supports the hospice, whether by working alongside us on our many projects and services in Greater Manchester, or by donating or joining our fundraising activities to ensure that care can continue. We can only do what we do thanks to that huge community of people who make up the St Ann’s family, so thanks to everyone who has contributed.  We really appreciate it.


Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s

Get involved

There’s so many ways you can get involved and support St Ann’s – from volunteering in our hospice shops to joining a fundraising event.

Take a look at how you can support the hospice.

Get involved




Celebrating our recent ‘outstanding’ CQC report

January 25, 2022 | 4:06pm

“Everyone is aware of the huge challenges that have been facing the healthcare sector during the pandemic. Media and social media channels have been full of stories of people working tirelessly on the frontline ensuring vital care can continue for those who need it.

“It’s not always easy, and that’s something we’re aware of here at St Ann’s too. Teams across the organisation have really dug deep, being brave and also bold when needed to ensure that as many people who need palliative and end of life care as possible can access it. We’ve had to be quick to respond to changing guidance, and have had to be responsive to the changing needs of our patients and those closest to them too.


Despite those challenges, I’ve been blown away by the ways teams across the hospice have pulled together to ensure we’ve been able to keep our doors open throughout the pandemic. The ways staff have collaborated with others across Greater Manchester, Cheshire and beyond. And the ways people have always kept our patients and their needs and wishes at the centre of every decision they’ve made.


Emma Dixon, Director of Clinical Services

“As Director of Clinical Services, I shout from the rooftops about our amazing care and services, and how proud I am of the team here at St Ann’s. But, you don’t just need to take my word for it.

“Last week we were so pleased to receive our latest CQC report from their independent assessors, following their inspection at our Little Hulton hospice. I’m pleased to report that the CQC team has rated us ‘outstanding’, and their report gives incredible feedback on the care and support we give to patients. You can read the full report here.

Quotes from the QCQ report and inspection

“Staff demonstrated the highest levels of compassion.” CQC

“…never come across such dedicated staff as I have in here, I have full confidence which makes me feel comfortable.” Patient contributing to CQC inspection

“Services were delivered in a way to ensure flexibility, choice and continuity of care and were tailored to meet patients’ individual needs and wishes.” CQC

“Patients consistently said staff treated them well and with kindness.” CQC

“I feel in control and I’ve not had that before.” Patient accessing the hospice’s Homeless Palliative Care Service

“Leaders ran services well, led innovations and supported staff to develop their skills.” CQC

“Staff were motivated to provide the best care they could for their patients.” CQC

“These are just a few of the comments made in the report about our care, and reading them makes me so proud. But, we’ve only been able to deliver that care, and to continue to do so despite the challenges of the pandemic, thanks to everyone in the community that supports us.

“Fundraising has been difficult, with many events and activities cancelled due to Covid restrictions. But, thanks to the amazing support of everyone who has made a donation, attended a virtual event, carried out their own fundraising, bought an item from our shops, or played our lottery, we’ve been able to continue providing care to people who need us. That’s a huge achievement, and we’re extremely grateful to everyone who has thought of us – and indeed continues to think of us.

“Your support means we can continue to provide outstanding care at a time which, for many of our patients, is one of the most vulnerable of their life.”

Thank you so much. We couldn’t do it without you.

Our services

We help people from across Greater Manchester who are over the age of 18 and affected by life-limiting illnesses, and we support their loved ones and carers too.

All our services are free of charge, and the sooner we’re involved, the more we can help.

Take a look at our services




We have been rated ‘outstanding’!

January 20, 2022 | 6:39pm

The CQC has this week confirmed the ‘outstanding’ rating for our Little Hulton hospice following an assessment in November. 

Comments in the report from the independent assessors included praise for staff who: “…treated patients with compassion and kindness, respected their privacy and dignity, took account of their individual needs, and helped them understand their conditions.”   

Feedback also said that the St Ann’s team: “…provided emotional support to patients, families and carers and went above and beyond what would have been expected to meet individuals needs and wishes.” 

We are a charity, and our teams collaborate closely with colleagues in the NHS and other health and social care professionals to ensure local people can access specialist palliative and end of life care when they need it most. 


I’m extremely proud of everyone in the St Ann’s team for this incredible achievement, and it was amazing and humbling to read the feedback from the independent CQC inspectors. 

It’s real testament to the hard work and dedication of staff and volunteers who have made sure that our patients and their families have continued to receive the very best care, even throughout the additional challenges of the pandemic. They’ve worked so hard on the front line to ensure care could continue. 

I’m proud every day to be part of such a fantastic team.  Whilst it has been challenging to keep on delivering outstanding care whilst raising the £20,000 a day we need to fundraise to keep those services going, everyone across the organisation – whatever their role – has really stepped up and pulled together to achieve that.  Our patients are at the heart of everything we do, and I’m so pleased that the outstanding levels of specialist care we provide have been recognised in this way.


Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s

Two staff members walking down the corridor

We have also recently been recognised with an Investors in People Gold Award, and in the last twelve months has also been shortlisted for, or won, a range of regional and national awards for our work.   

These include being a regional winner at the GM Chamber Excellence Awards for best Problem Solver which highlighted work the teams at the hospice had done to innovate and adapt in response to the pandemic – both from a care and fundraising point of view.  We also went on to win the national Winner of Winners award. 

We were also a finalist in the Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Awards for our innovative service providing palliative and end of life care support to homeless people in the city, and received the Mayor’s Special Recognition Award in acknowledgement of the value of the project on the lives of the people the team cares for.   

We celebrated our 50 year anniversary last year, and we’re embarking on a project to build a new site in Heald Green, to replace its current building there which has been a hospice for more than half a century and is no longer fit for the future. 

 


It’s an exciting time in our history, as we embark on our ambitious plans both for the new building in Heald Green, but also to ensure our services continue to meet the future care needs of generations of local people to come. 

Huge thanks to everyone who supports the hospice, whether by working alongside us on our many projects and services in Greater Manchester, or by donating or joining our fundraising activities to ensure that care can continue.   

We can only do what we do thanks to that huge community of people who make up the St Ann’s family, so thanks to everyone who has contributed.  We really appreciate it.


Rachel McMillan, Chief Executive of St Ann’s

Find out more about our services

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