Katharine House has been working with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (OUH) since November last year to explore a potential partnership. We have now been through a period of due diligence, which means we have been able to consider all aspects of the partnership clearly and carefully so that we can arrive at the most informed decision, and one that is in the best interests of Katharine House's patients and their families.

We can now confirm that the boards of the hospice and OUH have formally agreed that the partnership can progress and have signed legal agreements. This means that the management of our clinical services will transfer to OUH on 1 April.

Advantages of the partnership

Transferring the management of our clinical services to OUH would bring a number of advantages.

• We are able to protect the services that we provide to the community we serve.
• We will continue to be there when people need us most, providing care when it is required, where it is required, be that in the hospice, in the home or in the hospital.
• We will remain at Katharine House, our home for the past 30 years, providing the highest standards of care.
• Patients and families will notice no difference in how care is delivered, and will receive the care they currently have from our clinical team.
• Our Living Well service will continue.

We still need to raise £3million annually

It is important to stress that we will remain a charity, and that all the money we raise will continue to fund our clinical services. We will still need the support of our wonderful fundraising community to raise £3 million annually to meet the needs of the patients and families we care for every year, and fundraising remains at the core of what we do.

We continue to be dependent on funding and income from our shops if we are to deliver and improve our services.

Please consider donating today to our Moving Forward Appeal.

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Frequently asked questions

We have been asked some questions already, so here are answers to those that have been asked the most often.

Will patients still receive care at Katharine House?

Our building has always been our home, and will remain what it has always been; a caring, welcoming and friendly environment.

Will you be cutting services?

This partnership means that current services will be retained and bed capacity will also remain the same. Katharine House Hospice and OUH are committed to maintaining high quality palliative care services for our community. Our partnership will allow our journey to progress with stability and confidence, making sure our high levels of care remain accessible to all.

When is all this likely to happen?

Our clinical services are likely to be transferred to be under the management of OUH in April.

Katharine House Hospice

• To find out more about the work we do, read What we do or explore our What's On and For Patients and Families pages.
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