Waipuna Hospice staff member Becky Gardiner used hospice services last year with her father Chris Coppen who died from a rare blood disease in Feb 2022. The family used the hospice services for four months and all care was delivered at her father's home.
An “essential” Tauranga palliative care facility must raise $7.5 million in the next financial year to meet its expected shortfall as it grapples with staff shortages and salary pressures.
Waipuna Hospice offers “fantastic” care to people facing a terminal illness and supports families through bereavement and counselling services.
Becky Gardiner, a Waipuna staff member whose father died last year and was cared for by the hospice, said staff there were “experts” in what they did.
“They just have this beautiful approach and became an extension of our whānau.”
Gardiner is sharing her story for hospice awareness week this week as Waipuna Hospice calls for more government funding.
Waipuna Hospice staff member Becky Gardiner used hospice services last year after her father, Chris Coppen, was diagnosed with a rare blood disease. Photo / Alex Cairns
Gardiner said her father, Chris Coppen, was diagnosed with a terminal rare blood disease in September 2021.
Coppen received “fantastic” care from Waipuna Hospice for four months. He died “peacefully” in February 2022, aged 68.
Gardiner, HR and quality director at Waipuna Hospice, said her father’s hospice care was delivered at his home.
An initial visit from a social worker established Coppen’s needs and priorities, while community nurses regularly visited.
Gardiner said her father experienced declining mobility and fatigue so an occupational therapist brought in a La-Z-Boy chair, shower seat and toilet raisers to make things easier for him.
Gardiner and her mother were his primary carers and were taught how to move him, shower him and administer medication.
“We just felt so supported. You’re in a situation that you’ve never been in before - you’ve got so many questions, you don’t really know what’s happening.”
Becky Gardiner pictured with her father Chris Coppen.
After Coppen died, Waipuna Hospice offered services “that prioritised the family”.
“I think he was really comforted by the support that Waipuna was providing and he could see that there was going to be ongoing support for us as well.”
Gardiner said hospice was often talked about as a “really scary place”.
“Often people, I think, have hope for a longer period of time when they feel more supported and I feel like for Dad, the biggest message is probably knowing plans were in place made it so much easier for him.”
As the “head of the family”, Gardiner had wanted to make sure his family were looked after.
“So it was massive for him to know that when he couldn’t do that, [having] someone else to support that was awesome.”
Waipuna Hospice chief executive Richard Thurlow. Photo / Alex Cairns
Waipuna Hospice chief executive Richard Thurlow said the organisation saw almost 1000 patients per year and supported their families.
However, it needed to raise $7.5m in the next financial year to meet its expected shortfall.
Thurlow said its health operating costs were about $10.5m per year and it received $5m of funding from Te Whatu Ora. The organisation, including its shops, cost $12.5m a year to run.
Additional funding was typically raised through charity shops, events, donations, and grants.
Asked how achievable it was to get $7.5m, Thurlow said: “It’s not possible at the moment.
“We’re running deficits this current year and we’re forecasting a deficit next year unless some funding changes.”
He said the hospice was using reserves to get through. However, “we just can’t keep doing this forever”.
Thurlow said previous administrations had stated hospices should be funded to 70 per cent, which would allow them to engage with the community and operate as not-for-profits.
“I’d love it to be higher than that because we were deemed as an essential service during Covid but we’re not essentially funded.”
Thurlow said the low funding was “putting a lot of pressure on the organisation”.
It faced staffing shortages in specialist doctors and nurses, and experienced social workers and counsellors, he said.
Thurlow said it was “quite hard” to recruit registered nurses, partly due to the salary differences between Te Whatu Ora and the hospice.
And the disparity between salaries at a private practice and an organisation such as the hospice was “huge”.
In response to Thurlow’s comments, Te Whatu Ora population health commissioning interim director Deborah Woodley said there were “significant” challenges to be addressed in the transition to one health entity, particularly how community and primary care was commissioned for palliative care services.
Woodley said palliative care was a priority in the Te Pae Tata interim New Zealand Health Plan 2022, with an action to develop a nationally consistent model for pediatric and adult palliative and end-of-life care.
The model would be integrated across primary and community health and would strengthen the equitable provision of palliative care across New Zealand.
This would include a consideration of funding and sustainability for the model of care, Woodley said.
A new programme of work had recently started on palliative care to deliver the priority, she said.
Rotorua Community Hospice chief executive Jonathon Hagger. Photo / Andrew Warner
Rotorua Community Hospice chief executive Jonathon Hagger said it did not have the same level of challenges as Waipuna Hospice.
It was a smaller service and did not have an inpatient unit - all care was provided at people’s homes or in their choice of location. It had 30 employees and about 150 volunteers, he said.
Hagger said hospice care was “a much-needed part of the medical system”.
He said the community was aware it was 50 per cent funded by Te Whatu Ora and 50 per cent funded through other means, such as fundraising.
“Our plan is to be here for as long as we can ... in collaboration with Te Whatu Ora.”
