Dr Richard Sloan: key facts
- Kind of voice
- Clinician
- Role
- Medical Director (retired)
- Organisation
- Weldmar Hospicecare Trust
- Organisation based in
- West Dorset
- Quoted on
- Hospital discharge / bed-blocking
- Tracked press citations
- 1
- Most recently quoted
- 27 Aug 2026
Who Dr Richard Sloan is
Dr Richard Sloan is a retired palliative medicine consultant based in Dorchester, Dorset. A former GP from the north of England, he retrained in palliative medicine at St Christopher's Hospice in London before joining Weldmar Hospicecare Trust as its founding Medical Director when the hospice opened in January 1994. He served as Medical Director for approximately 20 years, retiring in 2013, and helped build Weldmar into an integrated service covering the whole of Dorset by merging with Cancer Care Dorset home-care nurses and the Trimar day hospice. His particular clinical interest was palliative care for patients with Motor Neurone Disease, and he has spoken and written on the role of palliative care in MND, arguing that it should begin at the point of diagnosis rather than be reserved for the final stages of illness. Since retirement he has continued to support Weldmar Hospicecare and has contributed as a speaker and mentor at MND education events.
“Jeremy Hunt's imposition in 2015 of a new contract on junior doctors (now called resident doctors) was on the false premise that if they could be forced to work more at weekends this would reduce delayed treatments and discharges.”
References for this biography
- 1.30 Faces of Weldmar – #14 Dr Richard Sloan, Weldmar Hospicecare — Background as a former GP, retraining at St Christopher's Hospice, joining Weldmar in 1993/94, expanding hospice care to non-cancer conditions, serving as Medical Director until retirement in 2013.
- 2.Richard Sloan – Marshwood Vale Magazine (November 2013) — Confirms 20-year tenure as Medical Director, retirement in 2013, special interest in MND, integration of Weldmar with Cancer Care Dorset and Trimar, and education of healthcare professionals in MND.
- 3.Students support MND research awareness with a conference – MND Research Blog (April 2020) — Identifies him post-retirement as 'Medical Director of Weldmar Hospice Care Trust in Dorchester (Retired)'; records his public advocacy that palliative care in MND should begin from diagnosis.
- 4.Palliative Care in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (academic volume contributor list) — Credits Richard Sloan as 'Medical Director (retired), Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, Dorchester, UK', confirming his published academic engagement with MND palliative care.
- 5.Weldmar Hospicecare – Charity Commission register — Confirms Weldmar Hospicecare's registered address as Herringston Road, Dorchester, Dorset DT1 2SL.
Notable achievements
- Founding Medical Director of Weldmar Hospicecare Trust, Dorchester, serving from the hospice's opening on 19 January 1994 until his retirement in 2013 — a tenure of approximately 20 years. Source ↗
- Contributed a chapter on palliative care in ALS/MND to the academic volume 'Palliative Care in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis', credited as Medical Director (retired), Weldmar Hospicecare Trust. Source ↗
- Helped expand Weldmar beyond cancer care to include heart failure, respiratory diseases and MND — described as going 'beyond the usual boundaries of hospice care' — and integrated Cancer Care Dorset nurses and Trimar day hospice under the Weldmar banner. Source ↗
- Spoke at a University of Southampton MND Association student conference (2020), using his 20 years' experience to argue that palliative care in MND should begin from the point of diagnosis. Source ↗
Where Dr Richard Sloan has been quoted
- Who’s to blame for the NHS’s blame culture? | Letterstheguardian.com · 27 Aug 2026
Related media coverage
Recent UK press coverage of their topics — not necessarily citing them directly.
Contact & links
Organisational contact points only, each taken from a page the organisation publishes itself. No personal or direct contact details are held or shown.
Doctors, nurses, allied health professionals and other registered clinicians quoted in a clinical capacity. Citations are counted by an automated scan of UK press coverage and may be incomplete. Roles, biographies and contact details are researched and human-reviewed before they appear here; anything not yet reviewed is simply absent rather than shown unverified. This profile was last updated on 5 Oct 2026. See the methodology for how this page is built, or email contact@bridgeheadcommunications.com to correct anything on it.