Vice President of Hospice UK and one of the country’s renowned experts in palliative care, Baroness Finlay officially opened the LOROS Professional Development Centre today. (Monday 9th October)
Kicking off this year’s Hospice Care Week, the celebration took place at 11am and was also attended by LOROS Patron Alan ‘The Birch’ Birchenall, a year to the day after the Leicester City legend helped mark the official start of the building work, with a turf cutting ceremony.
Baroness Finlay cut the ribbon to mark today’s opening, surrounded by LOROS staff, volunteers, trustees, ambassadors, as well as LOROS President Jennifer, Lady Gretton.
LOROS CEO John Knight said: “We felt extremely privileged to have welcomed 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 opening was a huge success and we look forward to showing the centre off more on Saturday at our Open Day.”
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.
View the photos from the Official Opening
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.
