Carlisle’s Eden Valley Hospice has been praised by inspectors following an unannounced visit.

Watchdog the Care Quality Commission (CQC) has just published its report after visiting the Durdar Road site in May.

Inspectors visited both the adult hospice and Jigsaw children’s unit, and spoke to children, adults and families.

The five areas of assessment looked at whether the hospice was safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led.

The CQC rated the hospice – which cares for adults and children with life-limiting illnesses – as “good” in all areas.

Gill Ward, head of care, was delighted with the report.

“We are all working towards one goal, which is to provide the very best palliative and end-of-life care to our patients and their families,” she said.

“Our clinical teams and the staff that support them are dedicated and work incredibly hard to provide this high level of care.”

The CQC regulates all health and social care services in England.

During the visit, inspectors found the hospice to be “very caring”.

The report said: “People who had used the service and carers we spoke with in the day hospice happily told us what a difference it had made in their lives.

“People spoke highly about their care and they said staff were compassionate and sensitive to their needs.”

Those interviewed spoke of their trust and confidence in staff, as well as their friendliness, approachability and empathy.

The report added: “The philosophy of care and values of the service were person-centred and staff and volunteers understood and practised these values.

“People felt safe and protected from harm. There was a high staff to patient ratio to meet people’s needs safely. This was regularly reviewed and adapted to reflect people’s changing needs.

“The service followed safe recruitment practices when employing new staff.

“Staff handled people’s medicines safely and focused on effective symptom control.”

The hospice was deemed to be meeting all expected standards.

Gill added however that they won’t get complacent.

“Service improvement is always a priority and we will continue to review and develop practice, knowledge and skills to ensure patients and families receive the best care possible,” she said.

“We have a real passion for our work and we are all very pleased to have received a strong CQC report, which reinforces the quality of care we give and recognise the efforts of the staff to provide that care to all our patients and their families.”

Year-on-year it costs Eden Valley Hospice and Jigsaw more than £3.7m to provide the care, support and activities to local adults, children, their families, friends and carers.

Under a third of that funding comes from the NHS, with the remaining £2.4m raised by the local community.