Hospice at risk from funds drop

The future of Cranford Hospice’s services are at stake.

To continue caring for the needs of people in the Hawke’s Bay community post Covid-19 the hospice has taken a proactive stance and it needs people’s help.

CEO Janice Byford-Jones said while she wanted to assure people that their family and friends were being well cared for they needed to make moves now to avoid a financial crisis due to Covid-19.

“Some sources of income stopped pretty much as soon as lockdown Level 4 came into play,” Byford-Jones said.

“Our three retail op shops in Napier, Hastings and Waipukurau make anywhere between $18,000 and $23,000 a week. Gone over night.

“Trusts and grants income has also dried up at the moment due to their own financial issues. Our street appeal was also cancelled.

“While we acknowledge that we are not the only ones facing financial difficulty the stark reality is that the future of Cranford Hospice’s services are at stake.”

Cranford Hospice is calling on its supporters and people in the community to help ensure its services can survive.

“We know how much the hospice means to the people of Hawke’s Bay and we want to ensure we can continue to meet the emotional, spiritual, social and physical needs of people through specialist palliative care, grief support and care planning.”

The cost to run the hospice is around $6 million a year.

The district health board provides $3.1 million, the rest comes from the community, which includes income from the op shops, bequests, pub charity and a street appeal.

The hospice cares for around 150 people Hawke’s Bay people at any one time.

“Nationally one in three people who die in NZ have hospice input of some kind and 90 per cent of our work is to support those in the community to support their loved ones,” Byford-Jones said.

“The in-patient unit has been closed to admissions due to lockdown restrictions but we have plans in place to open safely when we are ready at level 2,” he said.

“We are also working on our retail shops, putting in safe processes around cleaning, storing, distancing and reducing numbers in stores at anyone time — we hope people will come and shop and support the environmental aspect of using pre-loved goods.

“In the meantime we would be so grateful for your donations,” he said.