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Charity can convert old hospice into flats );
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PLANS to turn the former Sue Ryder hospice at Nettlebed into flats have been approved more than six years after they were drawn up.
The charity, which closed its inpatient unit at Joyce Grove in March last year, applied for permission for the conversion in February 2015.
Now South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority, has given consent as long as a footpath running along the northern edge of the site remains open to the public.
Sue Ryder has moved its outpatient services to a palliative care “hub” at Battle Barns, near Crowmarsh, along with a telephone support line which can arrange “hospice at home” visits by medical staff.
Sue Ryder palliative care staff settling into new base );
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THE director of Sue Ryder’s South Oxfordshire palliative care hub says it is settling into its new surroundings despite the coronavirus pandemic,
writes James Burton.
The charity ended its 40-year link with Joyce Grove at Nettlebed in October, when it moved to Battle Barns in Preston Crowmarsh.
This came seven months after it shut its inpatient hospice, which had 12 beds before the number was cut due to declining demand.
Sue Ryder says the hospice was expensive to maintain and sometimes impractical to visit because it wasn’t purpose built, while more people were wanting to die at home. It says the palliative care hub, which offers outpatient nursing visits and a telephone support line, has continued to grow in popularity since its launch in 2018.