The unit had provided for cancer and other patients through continuing care for those at their lives’ end, as well as respite care, symptom control and convalescence, supported by counselling services for patients and their families.
Following the closure, local general practitioners and staff from Bordean House felt there was a resulting gap in the care offered to terminally ill patients, suffering not necessarily from cancer but from other chronically debilitating illnesses as well. It was agreed on the need for a continuing palliative care nursing service in the area.
It was to meet this need that The Rosemary Foundation was founded by former Bordean House staff, and the Foundation has since extended the area in which it operates and in which it finds its support, so that it is currently active in a wide area including North, Mid, and South East Hampshire.
Today The Rosemary Foundation functions with the aims:
- To provide a full supportive hands-on nursing service for patients suffering from cancer, or adults with life-limiting illness, within their own homes.
- To provide counselling and bereavement support to patients and their families.
- To work closely with other Health Care Professionals involved in the individual patient’s care – GPs, Community Nurses and Palliative Care teams.
- To provide supportive palliative care to ensure the highest possible quality of remaining life for all patients and their families.
- To provide such services in accordance with need, irrespective of wealth, gender, ethnic origin, or religious persuasion.
- To provide services in such a way as to build personal relationships between patients and their carers and to provide every patient with a named nurse having overall responsibility for their welfare.
The latest figures available from 2019-2020 show The Rosemary Foundation received 284 patients, cared for 260 patients, worked 14,611 hours and our Bereavement Counsellors provided 75 hours 1:1 support.
The Rosemary Foundation
