Home Hospice - position November 2013

 

The financial support for the Home Hospice has been excellent.  To date the community has raised the following funds:

Mike Leech $5,000, Rotary - Port Lincoln $10,000, Bendigo Bank - Port Lincoln $50,000, Bendigo Bank - Cummins $25,000, Book Bazaar $22,000 and Giving Envelopes $4,500 - a total of $116,500.  These funds will be held by the EP Community Foundation and invested until needed.

The concept has obviously been seen by the community as a very important addition to the current services provided to seriously ill people and their families.

 

The Home Hospice will provide only 'end of life care' in people's homes if this is wanted by the terminally ill patient and their families and the circumstances are suitable.  The aim is to supplement the nursing care provided by Country Health with care at night, weekends and public holidays, but just for their last few days.  This care will be provided by Registered Nurses and will take away from the families the responsibility for medication and nursing care. Patients and their families in this situation can usually manage up until the last week or two and then the patient needs specialized care to make them as comfortable as possible.  A palliative care nurse's task is not to prolong life but to make the final days as pain and stress free as possible and enable quality time for the families.

 

Now that the funds have been raised, Luana Kraft, the Eyre Peninsula Palliative Care Co-ordinator for Country Health and a Board member of the Home Hospice is assessing agencies that already provide contract staff for home care to check if they would employ local registered nurses to provide the service for those patients selected by Luana.  A local service provider has said they will take the proposal to their Board.  As they already have a contract with Country Health, if they agree, the service should be able to be implemented almost immediately.

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