Dr Simon Allan (left) has been a great addition to the Hospice Whanganui team, board chairman Andrew Zimmerman says. Photo / Laurel Stowell
Dr Simon Allan (left) has been a great addition to the Hospice Whanganui team, board chairman Andrew Zimmerman says. Photo / Laurel Stowell
Patient care at Hospice Whanganui has been bumped up - with doctors specialising in end-of-life care there four days a week and also on call.
Palliative medicine specialist Dr Simon Allan has been spending Tuesdays and Fridays in Whanganui since December 2020, with Dr Wendy Tsai present on Mondays andThursdays.
Prior to this, Hospice Whanganui had a specialist medical officer from Wellington who visited about four times a year to support the hospice doctors.
"The fact that we now have two specialists seeing patients and supporting the clinical workforce in Whanganui over four days a week and doing on-call after-hours is really awesome," Hospice Whanganui chief executive Davene Vroon said.
Allan and Tsai both work at Palmerston North's Arohanui Hospice, where Allan is the director of palliative care.
He was made an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2015, for services to palliative care.
Palliative care specialist Dr Wendy Tsai shares her time between the Palmerston North and Whanganui hospices. Photo / Bevan Conley
Allan offers formal and informal training in palliative care at Arohanui. He was instrumental in making palliative medicine a specialisation in New Zealand, for both nurses and doctors.
His interest in palliative medicine began as a young doctor.
He said he found surgeons were not always capable when it came to telling the whole truth to patients who were going to die.
"I think it's very important that we as humans are given the truth in a way that's manageable and understandable," he said.
Two-thirds of the patients in hospice care have cancer. The other third have end organ disease with their heart, kidneys, lungs or nervous system failing.
Because New Zealand has an ageing population, more palliative care will be needed - and it's getting more complex, Allan said.
Carers needed to know about the disease process, but also the patient's social circumstances and their existential or spiritual concerns.
"We quite like our life. Losing it is a huge deal, leading to major upset physically, mentally and spiritually."
Most of Hospice Whanganui's patients are treated at home. Photo / Bevan Conley
Allan said most people wanted to die at home, with whānau around them, but sometimes that was difficult.
Hospice aimed to make them feel safe in the place they chose and in the presence of people they loved.
