Referrals surge at Teesside Hospice

A hospice is seeing demand rise sharply across its services.

Middlesbrough’s Teesside Hospice, which provides care for around 3000 local people, reported a 16.4 per cent increase in referrals over the past 12 months. 

Between April 2024 and April 2025, more than 1800 people were referred to its ten-bed In-Patient Unit, Wellbeing Centre, Lymphoedema Clinic and bereavement counselling service.

The rise comes as the hospice launches a new three-year strategy focusing on four key goals: putting people at its heart; reaching more patients; aiming for excellence; and becoming the charity of choice for donors, staff and volunteers.

Mike Thornicroft, chief executive of Teesside Hospice, said: “We expect that this number of referrals will only continue to grow over the coming years due to the UK’s ageing population, and so the launch of our new strategy means we can anticipate and respond to the needs of people with life limiting illnesses and their families.

“We’ve been putting a lot of thought into our future and our key objectives across the hospice and while we’ve always been working towards these goals in many ways, they’ve been refined with each of our core teams so that we all have a clear vision in mind as we move forwards.”

The hospice is expanding its services to meet rising demand but relies heavily on community support, as less than 30 per cent of its £6.75 million annual operating costs come from statutory funding.

Mike added: “Under these new objectives, we want to keep growing so that we have more capacity and ability to support the growing number of people who need us.

“But as the need for our services rises so do our operational costs, and it currently costs around £18,500 each day to run the hospice. 

“Less than 30 per cent is funded through statutory sources, so we really do depend on the support of donors and fundraisers.

“We’re here for everyone across Teesside and we’re not going anywhere, but we need the help of the community more than ever. 

“As well as meeting the needs of the growing number of people requiring our services, we’re also growing our offering to ensure we can reach even more people.

“Our vision is to ensure local people get the very best care at end of life – and as our referrals and service use grows, so does our drive for reaching and maintaining this goal.”

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