STAFF at St Richard's Hos-pice are preparing to care for even more patients with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses with the opening of five more palliative care beds.

Since the new £5.25 million hospice opened its doors in Wildwood Drive, Spetchley, Worcester, just over a year ago, patient numbers have increased and the 10 beds in the in-patient unit are frequently at full capacity, with a waiting list.

Now, thanks to ongoing fund-raising and additional financial help from the Worcestershire NHS Prim-ary Care Trust (PCT), 10 more nursing and health care staff will be employed.

The five new beds will also be available for patients who live in the Wyre Forest area, which has fewer palliative care resources than the south of the county.

Chief executive Mark Jackson said: "The first year in our new hospice clearly showed that the care needs of our patients and their families is far greater than we first thought.

"We had believed the majority of the patients that would come into the new bedded unit would be people for whom we were already caring. But this hasn't been the case. Sometimes, as many as 70 per cent of patients are totally new to us."

He added: "We built the hospice with 15 beds but only opened 10 because we wanted to be sure that the funding existed to support the other five in the long term.

"Our fund-raising and commercial departments, together with all our community fund-raisers, are working extremely hard and we are more confident now that St Richard's can accept the demanding challenge of meeting its share of the funding, but it will need the continued support from all across south Worcester-shire.

"The good news is that the PCT has agreed to increase its financial support and we will be able to open the beds thanks to their help. This is a super example of the hospice working in partnership with the NHS for the good of the county."

The PCT will fund approximately 30 per cent of the £4 million-a-year costs of the hospice.

Paul Bates, chief executive of the PCT said: "The Primary Care Trust is delighted to have reached agreement with St Rich-ard's about providing additional funding to enable the opening of a further five beds.

"This is sign of our growing relationship with the hospice and our commitment to invest more in palliative care."