Province to help fund hospice operations
A provincial commitment to increasing operational funding for the Hospice Peterborough Care Centre planned for London and Reid streets is key, but officials are reminding the community that more donations are needed to make the project a reality.
Some $1,050,000 – or $105,000 per bed annually – was announced Monday morning by Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs Minister and Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal, on behalf of health minister Erik Hoskins, in the parking lot of the planned 18,812-square-foot facility as part of a new Ontario focus to invest in hospice palliative care.
The provincial recognition of the importance of providing more beds was welcomed by excecutive director Linda Sutherland.
“Hospice Peterborough is working hard to raise the funds we need to build out community’s new Hospice Care Centre,” she stated. “It is wonderful to know that when we open the doors of our new (centre), additional operational funding will be there to help us provide the hospice care our community needs. Now, with this new focus from the (ministry) on palliative care, the future holds the promise of improved access to the care we will all need at some point in our lives.”
Central East Local Health Integration Network board member Joanne Hough was on hand with about 50 others for the announcement at 325 London St.
“Ensuring timely access to quality palliative care is not only an ethical imperative but a vital component of our health care system,” she stated.
The additional operational funding announced Monday is key, but it’s important to note that there is still $630,000 to be raised in the Bring It Home phase of the Every Moment Matters campaign, Sutherland pointed out.
“We really need our community to step forward and help us with that,” she said.
On June 23, the agency announced it had raised $7,615,387, or 92 per cent of its goal of $8.25 million, up from an initial $6.5-million target.
Hospice provides programs to support and enhance the comfort, dignity and quality of life of those and their families who are living with or dying from serious illness or are bereaved. Last year, more than 1,700 individuals from two to 99 years of age took part in its programs.
The centre will include a Victorian home that drew the agency to the site. Lett Architects designed a facility that will connect the 7,625-square-foot home, via a common reception foyer, with the new 10,187-square-foot, 10-bedroom resident care area planned for the east side of the property.
The private bedrooms will overlook trees and gardens and have innovative elements included in their design, officials said, adding how the care centre aims to be a community hub for the delivery of integrated hospice palliative care services.
NOTES: Hospital Palliative Care Ontario states that the cost of care in a hospital palliative care bed is $850 a day ($768 a day at Peterborough Regional Health Centre), and $439 a day in a hospice care centre .... For more information on Hospice or the Hospice Peterborough Care Centre, visit hospicepeterboroughcampaign.ca.