THE Phyllis Tuckwell Hospice at Farnham is being forced to close four out of its 18 beds from the end of this month, in response to an unprecedented cash shortfall of half a million pounds in the current year. It costs £3.8 million a year - that's £10,000 a day or £7 a minute - to provide the specialist palliative care services to the local community. The half-a-million pound deficit represents the amount by which donations to the charity have fallen this year. In a bid to redress the balance, the hospice, which celebrated its silver jubilee in 2004, this week launched a new campaign aimed at drawing in new supporters, with the fervent hope that the beds can be reopened as soon as possible. Chief executive Sarah Brocklebank, launching the Living Appeal, attributed the cash crisis in part to "the tsunami effect". "This has been a particularly difficult year for us financially, despite successes in fundraising and shops," she said. "Our legacy income has dropped by more than half and our donations have fallen 25 per cent. As we receive just 16 per cent funding from the NHS, this dramatic decline presents the hospice with an enormous challenge. "The dramatic decline in these two areas is partly reflected in the experience of other local charities across the country and has been dubbed 'the tsunami effect'. "While regular supporters and fundraisers have been very supportive of the hospice, the one-off donations that other people might have made this year have been diverted to causes such as the tsunami or earthquake appeals. "The drop in legacy income is harder to explain, but we have already taken steps to improve our promotion of legacy giving and we hope that this will take effect within five years." The Living Appeal - so named because the hospice is as much about people living with cancer as dying from it - is a chance for local people to show their support by making a donation, or by the tax-efficient methods of payroll giving, setting up a standing order and leaving a gift in their will to the hospice. "The Living Appeal is our invitation to the public to be part of our future," said Sarah Brocklebank. She hopes people will consider the issue of inheritance tax when making their wills and decide "let's not give it to Gordon Brown, let's give it locally". And she stressed: "Unless we do something different this year, we will have this deficit next year and the year after." The bed closures will be reviewed monthly against the success of the appeal. "We hope very, very much that the closure of beds is very temporary," said medical director Dr Carey Morris. He envisaged the effect of the closures would be that around eight patients a month who would have been admitted, will not now be able to be. "To ensure our patients still have access to hospice care, we are expanding our community nursing team and further developing outpatient clinics. This is very much in line with the general public's wish to be cared for at home and in the community as long as possible," he said. As far as nursing staff are concerned, Dr Morris was full of praise for their attitude and the sacrifices they had themselves made, but said jobs were being looked at throughout the hospice and he could not rule out redundancies. "We have worked with our nurses so that we will not be filling vacancies. Some will be moved sideways to support our community team," he added.