The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
A care facility built by
Simon Brouder visits a place which has brought comfort to those suffering from serious illnesses since it was built five years ago
OPENED in 2007 the Palliative Care Unit at Kerry General Hospital was the first dedicated unit of its kind opened in Ireland and it has transformed how the seriously ill are treated in Kerry.
The unit, located on the grounds of Kerry General Hospital was built thanks to the work of the Kerry Hospice Foundation who raised the majority of the money needed to open the unit.
Building the unit, which catered for 1,500 patient visits, last year cost € 3.8 million and the vast majority of this, some € 3 million was raised by the Kerry Hospice Foundation.
The HSE, who have responsibility for the day to day running of the unit, provided the additional funding to open it.
KGH’S Palliative Day Care unit is overseen by consultant physician Dr Patricia Sheehan.
She leads a dedicated palliative care team of six nurses, which runs the unit, working with junior doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, an occupational therapist, social workers and administrative support.
The unit also acts as the base for the home-care nurses who provide care for almost 400 patients each year in their homes and in district hospitals around the county.
The unit’s rehabilitation suite consists of physiotherapy and occupational therapy units which are used to help patients to remain active and independent for as long as possible within the constraints of their ill-ness.
The unit officially opened in August 2007 and now provides a wide range of services including, medical and nursing assessment and care, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, complimentary therapy and yoga.
A plan of care is devised which is tailored to suit each individual’s needs.
As well as more typical medical features the unit also includes some more unexpected features like a hairdressing and beauty salon, an art room and a garden, which are provided to make life more comfortable in entertaining for the patients who use the unit every day.
Chairman of the Kerry Hospice Foundation, Ted Moynihan, said the unit provides a vital support for patients and their families.
“We didn’t have anything like this until five years ago and it’s a wonderful resource. It’s not just good for patients it provides families with relief and support as well. Relatives can leave someone there for the day and know they’re in the best possible hands while they go about their business,” he said.
“Anybody that goes in there can’t speak highly enough about the place. It’s actually a lovely place to be. I knew one gentleman, who unfortunately passed away recently, and his son told me that his father had never wanted to go into the unit. That was until he actually went there. Once he’d been there he actually couldn’t wait to go back,” said Ted Moynihan.
The existing palliative care unit is a single-storey unit attached to Kerry General Hospital and is phase one of what is planned as a two-phase project.
The second phase will be a 15-bed in-patient unit on the second storey. This is expected to cost over € 3 million and much of this money has already been raised by the Kerry Hospice Foundation.
Basic plans for the residential phase of the unit are currently with the HSE and the Kerry Hospice Foundation is waiting for them to be released so the process of finding a design team and fully costing the project can begin.
“We have the money in place for it and we expect it will cost around € 23 million. We have it sitting in the bank but obviously we’d prefer have it in bricks and mortar than in a bank vault,” said Dan Galvin chairman of the Tralee Branch of the Hospice Foundation.
“We have most of the money in place but obviously we’re in the same financial position as everybody else at the moment. It costs us about €130,000 to €140,000 to maintain home care services in Kerry every year and that has to be taken care of before we can look at phase two of the palliative care unit,” said Ted Moynihan.
Since 1990 the voluntary Kerry Hospice Foundation has been involved in leading planning and organising the development of Palliative Care Services fro seriously ill patients in Kerry in Partnership with the Health Service Executive.
The Kerry Hospice Foundation is a voluntary organisation and has been fundraising since 1990. It contributes well over €100,000 to the care of cancer patients in Kerry each year with much of this funding going to providing support for cancer patients in their homes and in the counties various community hospitals and nursing units.
“We’re primarily a fundraising operation and we raise about €150,000 a year, a lot of which goes on funding support in district hospitals. We’re lucky that we have huge public support. In Tralee for example we have probably around 20 core members but when we need to run a fundraising event we can usually count on over 200 regular volunteers to help,” said Dan Galvin.
Cancer touches most families at some point and Ted Moynihan says there is a massive level of support around Kerry for the work of the Hospice Foundation.
“Cancer touches everybody and as a result we have huge support around the county. We have around 19 branches across the county all of which are very active and there are hundreds of volunteers ready to help us when needed. There is huge support for what we do,” said Ted Moynihan.
“It’s important to remember that this isn’t about the Kerry Hospice Foundation. We just do the fundraising it’s the people of Kerry who provide the money and support. Without them there’d be nothing here.”