Free personalised care and support for individuals living with life-limiting illness across Wisbech and the Fens. Providing Living Well services, treatment and clinical days at the Day Centre based at North Cambs Hospital in Wisbech.
Your feedback and suggestions are invaluable in order help us keep improving our services. Let us know what you think.
Specialist care and support
Providing expert care, which is holistic and tailored to each person’s specific needs by the multi-disciplinary team of highly qualified staff and dedicated volunteers.
Services include Living Well, treatment and clinical days (including blood transfusions, oncology and symptom management), complementary and diversional therapies, and bereavement and support services.
Additionally, supporting patients and their families in their own homes through a Hospice at Home service and a community specialist palliative care service which ensures integrated care. Also providing clinical advice and support to palliative patients on the adjacent Trafford Ward.
Living Well Service: Your path to empowerment and support
Embrace life despite limitations – Free personalised care and support for individuals living with life-limiting illness across Wisbech and the Fens.
Holistic, Tailored Support Programs: Personalised, weekly face to face sessions for up to twelve weeks.
Holistic Approach: Access to our complementary therapist and garden for a comprehensive approach to well-being.
Focused on Your Needs: We put you and your family at the centre of care, actively involving you in decision-making.
Symptom Management: Expert sessions addressing common issues such as anxiety, fatigue, and breathlessness.
Creative Therapies: Access to complementary therapies and creative activities such as music therapy, life celebration and memory making activities.
Emotional and Spiritual Support: Assistance in managing emotional and spiritual needs and support from our volunteer chaplain.
Future Planning: Help in planning for the future, including respect discussions, continuity of care and referral to other services when needed.
Redevelopment and expansion
To support the increasing volume and changing needs of people who require care, the redevelopment and expansion works were undertaken at the Treatment Centre in 2019. The Hudson Foundation were the primary donor for the internal works, with the Friends of Wisbech Hospital and the Robert Hall Trust contributing additional funds.
Offering space for private consultation, giving improved privacy and dignity; more treatment rooms with equipment to support patients with complex needs; dedicated complementary therapy and diversional activity rooms; increased Hospice at Home services to improve end of life choices; added rooms enabling us to support more patients and their families each day and a landscaped garden full of colour, creativity and flowers and plants to stimulate the senses, thanks to this extensive work.
As well as accessing a specialist team who can help with symptom management and control, spiritual support and providing relaxing therapies, the Life Celebration Coordinator guides provides creative therapy sessions allowing patients to discover a new talent or enjoy a long-forgotten hobby.
You can download ’51 Questions’ below to help spark memories and conversations between patients and their family or friends, these can be used at anytime.
Our Cambridge based site is now delivering both face to face and Virtual Living Well services to patients. Where there is a need, we are able to refer patients into this scheme. Please note they will be supported by the team based in Cambridge for these sessions, rather than Wisbech.
Patients will be invited to join via Zoom for a weekly programme of group sessions such as exercise, management of fatigue, anxiety or breathlessness, music therapy, relaxation and more.
You can find a series of informative videos to support you and your family on our Living Well Services webpage (scroll to the bottom of the page to access the videos).
Bereavement Support
You can access bereavement support, which is available to the family and friends of patients cared for by the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre, with both telephone and Zoom video calls in place, depending on what is most comfortable for you.
How many patients are cared for by the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre?
403 people were cared for across the Treatment Centre’s full range of services between April 2022 and March 2023
How is the Treatment Centre related to Arthur Rank Hospice Charity?
The Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre is an Arthur Rank Hospice Charity service.
This means that whilst clinical care is delivered from the Centre at North Cambs Hospital in Wisbech, the service is supported by the business and administration framework of the Arthur Rank Hospice Charity.
This includes aspects which are integral to the Centre’s every-day upkeep, such as facilities maintenance, financemanagement and administration, as well as volunteer, fundraising and communications support.
How is the Treatment Centre funded?
The Treatment Centre is funded by the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Clinical Commissioning Group, with additional funding received Queen Elizabeth Hospital in King’s Lynn for services provided for their patients.
We are extremely grateful to our local community for the dedication, commitmentand generosity they show in helping raise the additional funds needed annually to fund its care.
Our extensive redevelopment and expansion were generously funded by The Hudson Foundation, who were the primary donor for the internal works, with the Friends of Wisbech Hospital and the Robert Hall Trust contributing additional funds.
Am I eligible to receive services and how can I be referred?
Services delivered by the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre are available free of charge to patients living with an advanced serious illness or life-limiting condition, and their families, in North Cambridgeshire and the Fens.
Referrals can come from any healthcare professional so long as the patient has provided consent.
Patients are also able to refer themselves to the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centreand will be assessed to see whether they match the criteria required for care. For more information visit How and when to seek a referral.
For further information, please call the team on 01945 669620.
Where can I find more information to support myself or a loved one?
Please see our series of videos at the bottom of our Living Well webpage which include:
Thanks to the dedication, commitment and generosity of the local community and the hard work of our senior leadership team to secure vital contracts with the NHS, all our services are free of charge.
Face to Face appointments – we can offer free face-to-face Will writing and legal advice appointments with local solicitors who have kindly offered a certain amount of appointments each month.
To book one of these appointments just contact Rachael, Future Gifts Manager on 01223 675881 or email r.brown@arhc.org.uk
If you would like to support people in your community at the Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre, please contact Toni Bird, Community Partnership Officer – email toni.bird@arhc.org.uk or give her a call on 07435 550995.
There are hundreds of different ways you can support others and Toni would be delighted to hear from you!
If you prefer to send a donation, please note that all cheques must be made payable to ‘Arthur Rank Hospice Charity’. If you wish to restrict your donation to the ‘Alan Hudson Day Treatment Centre’ please indicate this by writing on the back.)