The chief executive of Hospice Isle of Man John Knight has said ‘securing of funds’ is one of the main targets of the charity’s new strategy.

Labelled ‘measured ambition’, the new strategy includes aims for both the hospice and Rebecca House Children’s Hospice.

A spokesperson for the charity said: ‘We live with an ageing population in which people are living longer with multiple morbidities – demanding complex care often for longer periods.

‘In brief, demand for hospice care is rising, and funds are increasingly hard to secure.

‘Quite rightly, the overarching premise is that we must first and foremost set out our strategic service ambitions for patients and their families, which in turn affects our workforce plan, then followed by the necessity to secure sustainable statutory and voluntary income to fund it all.’

The strategy sets out the hospice’s ambition to be ‘leaders for palliative and end of life care in the Isle of Man’.

The key to this, according to hospice, is to ensure the charity remains vibrant well into the future and builds on its successes over the past 40 year.

Mr Knight said: ‘I say with the confidence built upon 38 years of voluntary sector experience that our island’s hospice is truly a world class facility, and we must cherish and safeguard it.’

The strategy document can be viewed in full at www.hospice.org.im/about-us/our-strategy