Cornwall Hospice Care is to receive a £35,355 grant from the Department of Health to improve facilities at St. Julia's Hospice in Hayle.

The money will be spent on upgrading the outdated kitchen facilities at the eight-bedroom unit; the installation of a canopy over the new entrance to give greater privacy to patients; and to improve staff facilities in an adjacent building.

St. Julia's is one 146 local hospices across England who are to receive a share of £40 million of funding from the Department of Health.

The money was made available to improve the physical environment of adult hospices as part of the Department of Health (DH) Dignity in Care for Older People programme and will be allocated to hospices caring for people living with terminal illness and facing the end of life.

Paul Brinsley, Chief Executive, of Cornwall Hospice Care said: " We are delighted with this award which will enable us to improve the environment for patients and staff at St Julia's Hospice. We are fully committed to developing our services for the people of West Cornwall and this is the first step in a programme of improvements at the unit that we will be rolling out over the summer."

The grant will be used to: modernise and upgrade the kitchen facilities to enable catering staff to introduce a wider range of patient and visitor meals with greater emphasis on improving nutrition and variety; install a canopy over the new central entrance to ensure greater security and privacy for patients and their families; provide separate office accommodation for staff who work across both units.

Work on the improvements at St. Julia's Hospice will start immediately.

Cornwall Hospice Care provides Specialist Palliative Care for people throughout the county who are terminally ill and offers support to their family and carers. There are 24 in-patient beds across its two hospices - Mount Edgcumbe in St Austell and St Julia's in Hayle, a busy day unit, as well as Lymphoedema and outreach clinics. The care given includes practical, emotional and spiritual support, both to the patient and to their families.