'We wish we could give you a hug' - Cornwall hospice staff dealing with death and grief in lockdown
Staff at a Cornish hospice charity have opened up about the difficulty of caring for terminally ill patients and comforting their families in the time of Covid-19.
Cornwall Hospice Care, which has two sites in St Austell and Hayle, is balancing the needs of people who want to see their loved ones with the importance of staying safe.
Ward sister Sally Davies, said that the staff had iPads, and other tablets to allow people to video call to see each other, something she says "can be enormously important during this period of time".
Families are invited into the wards at the very end of someone's life - but even that is tightly controlled.
Sally added that although they wish they could give out hugs and be tactile everybody is understanding of the situation.
After complaints that hospices were not getting the protective equipment they need, the Government has made some changes.
St Luke's Hospice in Plymouth is now in charge of distributing kit across the region.
Along with the challenges of front line care, many charities are in a perilous financial position.
Paul Brinsley of Cornwall Hospice Care says the closure of charity shops and no fundraising taking place means they are losing £125,000 a week.