Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice to grow.

Waverley Planners give the go-ahead for Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice to expand.

It is proposed to erect a new hospice building including inpatient, outpatient and offices with plant and machinery on the roof together with new landscaping and amenity areas following the demolition of buildings, as well as the refurbishment of 2 storey building, The Dove Wing, which is to be retained.

Phyllis Tuckwell is the only adult hospice care charity caring for patients and families across the whole of West Surrey and part of North East Hampshire, from the Hospice in Farnham, the Beacon Centre in Guildford, in the community and in people’s own homes.

For over 40 years, Phyllis Tuckwell has provided specialist support and end-of-life care to adult patients and their families living with an advanced or terminal illness (such as cancer, heart, lung or neurological disease) in West Surrey and North East Hampshire, serving 550,000 residents.

The existing building accommodates an Inpatient Unit (IPU) comprising 14 beds, staff offices, therapy and training rooms and restrooms. The buildings towards the eastern and southern sides of the site, housing the IPU, are primarily single-storey. The proposal will enable the Hospice to return to its pre-pandemic occupancy of 18 inpatient beds and provide the charity with modern office space and meeting spaces.

The development retains the two-storey Dove Wing, demolishing the remaining buildings on site. The demolished element will be replaced with a new hospice facility (Use Class C2), adjoining the retained Dove Wing and accommodating improved and enlarged inpatient and outpatient facilities, office space and meeting rooms, courtyard and external amenity areas and retained car parking and access.

The new building, incorporating the Dove Wing, will sit on the approximate footprint of the existing facility and will comprise an 18-bed IPU, outpatient facilities, visiting areas, offices, and ancillary and charity staff areas. The facility will enclose a main central courtyard and, external to the building, to the south.

Design & Access Statement PT t 8704765

PHYLLIS TUCK document 8789740 decision notice

‘Your Waverley’ 2023/2027

FOUR MORE YEARS.

 

Hearty congratulations to the Rt Hon Anne Milton and her nursing colleagues.

What a wonderful day for the nursing profession, of whom we are so proud, which has finally become the 111th Worshipful Company in the City of London.

Our Former MP – the Rt Hon Anne Milton, was present for a moment in history as the nursing profession of which she is so proud was recently awarded the Worshipful Company by the Court of Alderman in London.

The Founders at the Guildhall heard the Court of Alderman award the status of Worshipful Company to the Nursing Profession with the backing of the City and their fellow Freemen.

It was such an honour and a  moment in history for our profession. We so appreciate the support we have had from the City & from our Freemen.”

Anne is pictured second from the right in the bottom row.

Said Liz Fenton OBE, QN. “Congratulations and what a fabulous acknowledgement of all the great work of the famous 8. What an achievement- onwards now & upwards.”

Former Guildford, Cranleigh MP Anne Milton and their nursing colleagues dubbed the “famous 8.”

Congratulations have poured in from all over the country – and from fellow Aldermen.

Said one. I was delighted to have been present in the Court of Aldermen today to support the resoundingly unanimous decision of the Court to grant @CompanyNursesfull livery status. Congratulations to all of the Company’s members and all who have worked so hard to get to this point!”

Many congratulations! We were all delighted to unanimously support granting full Livery status. A historic moment. Looking forward to supporting the company in the years ahead.

How ‘unfit’ PPE helped former playboy buy two mansions

You have heard that expression. Laughing all the way to the bank.

Glove tycoon Robert Gros splashed millions on luxury homes and planned to build a cinema, disco and golf simulator.

Adam Bychawski

An estimated £27m of gowns supplied by Gros’s company was later deemed “unfit for use”.

A form’ playboy’-turned-businessman made a fortune supplying PPE during the pandemic, even though the NHS may be unable to use millions of the gowns his company delivered, openDemocracy can reveal.

Chemical Intelligence Limited was awarded a £126m contract to supply 21 million medical gowns desperately needed to protect NHS workers treating Covid patients in May 2020. But data released to openDemocracy through freedom of information law show the Department of Health and Social Care later deemed 4.5 million of them – worth an estimated total of £27m –

“not fit for use” in the NHS. 

Lawyers acting on behalf of Robert Gros, the sole owner and CEO of Chemical Intelligence, said Gros could not comment because he

“did not recognise these figures or amounts”.

The bumper PPE contract allowed Gros, 51, to turn around his business, which had made losses two years running prior. According to accounts filed on Companies House, Chemical Intelligence declared profits of £33m for the year up to September 2020. It had just two employees, including Gros, when it landed the multi-million-pound government contract.

The Covid-19 public inquiry is a historic chance to find out what really happened.

Gros personally splashed out on a £4m country pile just four months after he clinched the PPE deal. In 2021, after his company reported a further £31m in profits, he bought a second £2m country home and asked for planning permission to fit a basement bowling alley in the first.

The businessman then paid himself £7m in dividends in January 2022 – after having already loaned himself £6m the year before. Two months later, he transferred £40m in dividends to a holding company that he entirely owns. 

Gros would only answer Open De mocracy’s questions through his lawyers, who told us that he had paid all the necessary corporation tax and that the £4om would “continue to be reinvested” in his business. 

The £126m contract was one of many for which the government paid over the odds as demand for PPE skyrocketed during the pandemic, and it did not have enough stockpiled. Gowns cost the government 1,260% more than they did before the pandemic, according to the National Audit Office.

A fifth of gowns supplied by Chemical Intelligence was labelled “not fit for use” because they “failed the technical, clinical or regulatory compliance assessment”, openDemocracy understands. The department would not elaborate on why the gowns failed checks, but according to the data released under FOI, their value has been written down to £0.

“The department has processes in place to review the quality of PPE and determine whether products are suitable to be released to the frontline,” said a spokesperson. “Upon receipt, a sample of each product is reviewed by DHSC’s Technical and Regulatory Assurance team.

“A proportion of this stock was classified as ‘do not supply’. Stock in this category has not necessarily fallen short of standards, and in many cases, these products can be used in other settings.”

Gros’s lawyers insisted that all the PPE the company had supplied was “fit for purpose and use”, suggesting the DHSC may have been mistaken in its record-keeping. The department confirmed that Chemical Intelligence also provided £35m worth of face masks and disposable surgical aprons under separate contracts awarded in 2020, none deemed unusable.

Of the £12bn the government spent in total on PPE, £4bn worth cannot be used by the NHS because it doesn’t meet the proper standards, according to a 2022 report by the Public Accounts Committee of MPs.

Gros’s lawyers said that the sharp rise in profits for Chemical Intelligence was not all down to PPE deals; he struck during the pandemic and threatened openDemocracy with an injunction if we revealed details about his mansions.

So let us all keep quiet about this scandal eh?