DITCHINGHAM will be home to the first palliative care hospice beds in the Waveney and Great Yarmouth area after a collaboration between All Hallows Hospital and St Elizabeth Hospice.

There are to be three beds made available for patients living with a progressive illness, such as heart failure, kidney disease and cancer, after the agreement between the hospital and charity.

Waveney and Great Yarmouth was one of the areas in the country without hospice beds, but on Sunday this will change as the beds are made available for the first time.

They have been made possible after NHS Norfolk and Waveney and HealthEast CIC, the new clinical commissioning group for Great Yarmouth and Waveney, commissioned two of the hospital's inpatient beds for two years as part of the Marie Curie Delivering Choice programme.

St Elizabeth Hospice, which merged with Waveney Hospice Care last year, is directly providing a third bed in conjunction with All Hallows Hospital, with the hospice investing �2.2m in the Waveney and Great Yarmouth area in the next three years.

This will allow the charity, which already provides day services at Beccles Hospital on a Thursday, to also offer day services at the hospital on Mondays, as well as services at Crossroads Care Waveney, in Lowestoft, on Tuesdays, and an outpatient's clinic at Cutlers Hill surgery, Halesworth, on Fridays. Further day services are also planned for Great Yarmouth in September.

St Elizabeth Hospice's chief executive Jane Petit said: 'We are delighted to announce the introduction of St Elizabeth Hospice services at these new locations.

'Our work is centred around an individual's needs and our aim is to provide specialist support wherever it is required. There is a great need for hospice services in this area and patients and their families will be able to start benefiting immediately.'

Chief executive Clair Westwood-Deamer said: 'We are delighted to be working with St Elizabeth's Hospice for the benefit of our patients, continuing to provide seamless healthcare services to Bungay and surrounding areas.

'Working with St Elizabeth's will enable us to provide specialist palliative care services in partnership with this charity.'

The beds will be provided in the Gainsborough Suite, which was recently developed after money raised by the Friends of All Hallows Hospital.

John Randle, chairman of All Hallows Healthcare Trust, said: 'The Trustees are very pleased to be able to extend the range of All Hallows services in conjunction with St Elizabeth's and thus build upon our other work with the NHS towards a comprehensive role in palliative care in the area.'

The East Coast Hospice appeal has also been working to bring hospice beds to Waveney and Great Yarmouth. They hope to have their plans to build a 10-bedroom hospice in Gorleston approved by May.

St Elizabeth Hospice currently has an 18-bed inpatient unit and day unit in Ipswich as well as outpatients and Hospice at Home services.

For more details about services provided by St Elizabeth Hospice, to refer a patient or to find out about fundraising events or volunteering opportunities in your area visit www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk or call 01493 690990.

For more on All Hallows contact Donna Oakins on 01986 892728 or visit www.all-hallows.org.uk