Marlborough Express - Weekend Express
Hospice starts work on renovation wishlist
Marlborough’s hospice building has largely stayed the same since it was built two decades ago, along with everything inside.
And the facilities are starting to show their age.
But now Hospice Marlborough, which services an area stretching from Rai Valley to Ward, providing palliative care services to people either at home, in hospital, or at the hospice inpatient unit, is upgrading.
To ensure and optimise the quality of care for those being looked after in-house, changes to the Blenheim hub had started during the past last year with some aesthetic touches. Walls received a new coat of paint, hedges were growing next to a side entrance, and the rooms were refurbished.
And now structural internal alterations are on the way, after a $200,000 building consent was issued by the Marlborough District Council in February.
Hospice Marlborough’s current facility opened in 2003, and the most significant update up until now had been an extension in 2009, taking the inpatient unit to five beds in total.
The interior of the original build and most of the equipment was now “basically 20 years old”, facilities and grants lead Sara Mitchell said. “It was fit for purpose back then, but it’s not now.”
The internal alterations would see the nurses’ station opened up, with the addition of more offices for community nurses in overflow. A main thoroughfare, the area would be made a “bit more cohesive”.
“It does mean that there is a little bit more guidance and wayfinding and cohesiveness in terms of flow, and meet and greet,” events and engagement lead Leigh Somerville said.
The building’s main bathroom will get a new hydrotherapy bath and an overhead hoist system leading to the toilet, making getting in and out of the bath an easier, more streamlined process.
“This part, probably for me, is the most exciting part,” Mitchell said. “It’s just going to make such a difference.”
Being able to ease stress for nurses and patients with modern equipment was “better all round”, Somerville said. “This is all about ensuring that quality of care, and that we optimise that quality of life that they have in that end of life journey.”
Overhead hoists being installed in every room connecting to the ensuites won’t happen just yet, but it was a future goal.
“It’s like a wish list, but I think we’ll end up achieving it, because we have to with our model of care and sustainability, and the way we go forward,” Mitchell said.
“We’ve still got a wee way to go ... it’s been 20 years of stuff that we’ve had to just slowly go through.”
There was a shortfall in operational funding from Te Whatu Ora to Hospice Marlborough every year, which meant they had to raise funds themselves.
“We have a financial responsibility to our community and those sponsors and our partners, etc, to ensure that we’re investing wisely in whatever we do,” Somerville said.