AN ambitious plan to improve facilities at Stourbridge’s Mary Stevens Hospice has been thrown into doubt after a £250,000 funding blow.

Bossesat the Hagley Road hospice had been working up £1million plans to enhance the reception area and create a new a spiritual space for inpatients - and to provide an onsite base for the hospice community team.

Funding of £750,000 had been anticipated from the Department of Health, as part of a commitment to provide high quality care for adults nearing the end of their lives, and hospice trustees had pledged £250,000 from the charity’s reserves.

But the Cabinet Office revealed today (Wednesday) that Mary Stevens Hospice’s allocation of the £60m West Midlands grant would be £509,000.

Chief executive Peter Holliday said: “It’s only 68 per cent of what we applied for - it’s a shortfall of a quarter of a million pounds.

“We now have to make a decision whether to scale down our plans or launch a public campaign to raise the missing funds - that’s a decision we shall make over the next couple of weeks.”

The Oldswinford hospice is one of 176 across the country to be allocated the government cash to help improve care environments and help hospices support people in their own homes.