Victoria Hospice hopes to replace outdated facility
The Victoria Hospice Society is anxious to leave its cramped location, where some end-of-life patients must share rooms, and staff and volunteers work out of converted closets.
Victoria Hospice, which provides palliative treatment to people at the end of life, is squeezed into 17,000 square feet on the third and fourth floors of the Richmond Pavilion, near Royal Jubilee Hospital. The space, built more than 60 years ago, is dark and dated, said Mischelle vanThiel, Victoria Hospice’s chief executive officer.
“It is past its usable life for a hospice and it really isn’t suitable for a renovation,” she said.
The society is hiring a consultant to examine the viability of raising funds for a $22-million, two-storey, 35,000-squarefoot building on Victoria General Hospital land at Watkiss Way and Hospital Way.
At the same time, partner Island Health is doing its due diligence on the plan’s overall feasibility. That work should be complete in about three months, said Elin Bjarnason, who oversees hospitals, community services and end-of-life care services for the health authority.
If the project proceeds, the society would pay for construction and Island Health would own the building. The building would be leased to the society for a nominal amount, Bjarnason said.
Island Health is increasing the number of these types of patient beds on Vancouver Island, aiming for 64 by March 2020, she said. It is currently at a little more than half of that.
VanThiel said the current facility has 17 beds in 13 rooms. There’s one shower and one bathtub. “A hospice is not really suitable for shared rooms, as you can imagine,” she said, noting patients just want to be with family and don’t want strangers around.
The project would create a modern, homier facility and allow the society to expand its programs and services, vanThiel said. Lack of space in the Richmond Pavilion means bereavement meetings for families and groups are often held away from hospice.
Plans call for 24 large individual rooms, each with a spa-style bathroom with its own shower.
There would be dedicated space to store nursing supplies, for counselling and meetings, administration offices, volunteers and for a children’s program. Space for recreational therapy and massage, a visitor lounge, a kitchenette and a library is also planned.
Other hoped-for improvements include lifts to move patients directly from beds to bathrooms. “We can’t install those kinds of lifts in the current building,” vanThiel said. “Just from a nursing point of view, you can imagine having proper patient lifts and how that improves nursing work.”
Past donations of $4 million would help defray the total cost of construction, furniture and equipment, vanThiel said.
Ideally, the society would like to relocate in about 2 ⁄ years, she said.
Some services would still be available at the Royal Jubilee.
The Victoria Hospice Society’s annual operating budget was $7.6 million for the 2015-16 year. Public support, such as donations and fundraising, totalled $4 million. Island Health contributes at $3.8 million (including Medical Services Plan money that was recovered), under a renewable three-year service contract.
In the 2015-16 year, 494 patients were admitted to Victoria Hospice. The palliative response team made 1,557 home visits, while bereavement services reached out to 2,700 people, the society’s annual report said.
“We all know the population in Canada, and the Island in particular, is aging rapidly,” vanThiel said.
“The need for it is expanding.”