A DAY hospice built with £850,000 of community money is only taking in people on three days a week because too few doctors are telling their patients about the service, say health watchdogs.

The Butterwick Hospice at Bishop Auckland, is operating below capacity, with only a dozen people a day using it, instead of the 20 it was designed for when in opened in 1995.

Patients, and their carers, miss out on the service because people are often close to death by the time they come to make use of the hospice, South Durham and Weardale Community Health Council (CHC) has told County Durham and Darlington Health Authority.

The council was commenting on a report on Durham's palliative care services by Dr Derek Doyle, a leading authority who visited the hospice during his research.

Butterwick Hospice's chief executive Graham Leggatt-Chidgey said: "We get a significant number of late referrals at a stage when the patient's illness has advanced so much that they don't really get the benefit they might. This has a knock-on effect on the families, because after the patient's death we haven't been able to build up a relationship that is so vital when supporting people in bereavement care."

As well as receiving palliative and respite care, hospice patients can visit a hairdresser and take advantage of complementary therapies and social events.

A large amount of its £150,000 annual running costs are met by fundraising organised by people in South Durham.

Community health council chief officer Val Bryden told the health authority's director of planning, Andrew Young, that too few health professionals were telling patients about the hospice.

Her letter, which reflected the views of a council's working party, asks for a strategy to increase the uptake of day hospice provision.

A spokesman for the health authority said: "We commissioned Dr Doyle's report on the availability of palliative care throughout County Durham and Darlington.

"The next thing we have to do is to decide on a plan of action and we will take the CHC's views into consideration."

For details of the hospice's services, telephone (01388) 603003.