A HOSPICE which was forced to close its inpatient unit due to a shortage of senior staff plans to reopen it by spring next year.

St Mary’s in Ulverston is said to be in advanced discussions with a company that would provide ‘digital consultants’ to assist senior doctors running the unit.

The new model - a UK first - is said to remove the need for an on-site medical director, a post the hospice has been unable to fill.

Bosses say it would secure the longer-term future of in-patient care at the facility because a bank of experienced consultants would be on hand across days, evenings and weekends to offer support.

Val Stangoe, the chief executive of St Mary’s Hospice, said conversations would be held over the phone or by Skype and would 'meet the needs' of hospice patients.

She said: “The model we are exploring brings the possibility of reopening our beds to the vast majority of those who seek our support each year.

“In this new model our own speciality doctors and advanced nurse practitioners, all with experience in palliative care, would have remote conversations with consultants in specialist palliative care working elsewhere.

“We believe in this new model we would be able to meet the needs of the majority of those who need hospice care.

“ I suspect that in the coming years, hospices in rural areas will move more towards this way of working as the recruitment of senior doctors and consultants in palliative care becomes increasingly difficult.”

The hospice suspended admissions to its inpatient unit in September for an initial period of three months while it searched for a senior doctor in palliative care.

Despite an international search - which led to a number of applications - the position remains unfilled.

Mrs Stangoe added: “It’s true that this isn’t exactly the outcome we’d hoped for. However, our unsuccessful international recruitment drive does show how difficult it is to find a doctor with suitable skills and experience, who is also at this time willing to come to work locally.

“Our staff are driven to create a model which delivers our highly respected palliative and end of life care to as many people as possible.

“A benefit of this proposed model is that it is more sustainable long term as it doesn’t depend on one person who may for whatever reason leave, fall ill or retire.

“However this outcome still depends on us being able to recruit doctors into our vacant speciality doctor/medical officer roles, the interviews for which are next week.

“While we are not out of the woods yet, we remain cautiously optimistic that our beds will be re-opened in the new year.”