Baroness Finlay, an internationally renowned expert in palliative care, will be officially opening LOROS Hospice’s brand new, state of the art Professional Development Centre today.
Alan ‘The Birch’ Birchenall is also attending the event, a year to the day after the Leicester City legend helped mark the official start of the building work, with a turf cutting ceremony.
The Professional Development Centre is Phase One of the Hospice’s £6 million site development and will ensure the education team at LOROS can deliver high-quality palliative care training to fellow professionals within the sector.
LOROS CEO John Knight said: “We feel extremely privileged to be welcoming Baroness Finlay, the Vice President of Hospice UK, to open our Professional Development Centre today.
“Of course, it will also be our pleasure to welcome back The Birch, who not only saw the first ever brick being laid at the Hospice 37 years ago but also helped launch the start of this exciting build a year ago.
“It has been an extremely exciting year for the Hospice, as staff, volunteers, patients and their families have witnessed the creation of the centre, as it has developed from a plot of land to a five seminar room modern building.”
The centre will also include a lecture hall, which can seat up to 80 people, a library, IT training rooms and a canteen.
Making the centre even more unique, will be a clinical skills viewing room which will be set up like a patient’s bedroom, giving students the opportunity to train using real-life situations.
Having a specialist education building will also ensure LOROS can continue delivering and developing high-quality research in palliative care.
As well as the Hospice hosting their own courses and events, the rooms, which vary in sizes, will also be available to hire by external organisations for team away days and training.
“The centre is set to be a hub for education, training and research within Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland,” said Director of Education and Workforce, Ruth Auton.
“With high quality, easily accessible facilities, it will be the perfect location for external businesses and organisations to use when they want to get out of their every-day offices but still want to remain in a professional setting.”
The second phase of the development, which has now begun, will see the extension of the Hospice’s Day Therapy centre, allowing us to support more than 250 patients every year.
For more information on the Professional Development Centre, or if you are interested in booking a room, email venuehire@loros.co.uk or call (0116) 231 8455.
The centre will be open for public viewing this Saturday (14th October), when LOROS will be opening its doors to the public for their annual open day, ‘The Big Day Out at LOROS’. The free, family-fun open day will be taking place from 10am until 4pm.
