Review calls for Hospice unity

Adult and children’s services run by the Northern Ireland Hospice should be divided and run as separate charities, the report of the Northern Ireland Hospice Review Team has said.

This is one of a number of key recommendations in the Report designed to restore public confidence in the organisation following the Tom Hill affair.

Mr Hill said he was temporarily stepping aside from his recently appointed role of chief executive while the review was carried out following his sacking, then reinstatement, by the hospice.

Last year he said he was handing back some of the £80,000 damages he was paid for unfair dismissal before beginning his new role as chief executive.

Speaking following the launch of the report, Sir Graham Hart, chairman of the Review Team said: “The main aim of this report is to try to put the recent troubled past of the Hospice behind us and instead look to what we hope is a bright future. My colleagues and I are convinced that our recommendations can help resolve the difficulties of the last few years and set the Hospice on the road to recovery.

“We think our recommendations, if accepted by the Department, represent a credible way forward.”

The Hospice Review Team was established by former Health, Social Services and Public Safety Minister Des Browne in December 2002.

Its task was to carry out a review of the Northern Ireland Hospice examining past events including the dismissal of Tom Hill and his later appointment as Chief Executive, and to consider the best way forward for the Hospice.

(MB)