Peek behind the doors at Hospice Waikato
It’s a place of refuge for those facing the hardest journey of all, now the public can take a peek into the second largest Hospice in the country.
Hospice Waikato on Cobham Drive is holding an open day on Saturday, from 11am, as an opportunity for Hamiltonians to learn more about the specialist palliative care facility. It is also a celebration of Kowhai House’s one-year anniversary, an accommodation facility for patients’ families from out-of-town.
This enables people to “be close to their loved ones, in those most precious times,” business service manager at Waikato Hospice, Rosemary Poole said.
Dave Wilkins stayed at Kowhai House to support his brother Noel Wilkins, who was a patient at Hospice Waikato for about three weeks. Noel’s family had travelled from Wellington, Hastings, Christchurch, and Taupo, and had no family connections in Hamilton.
Wilkins said the facility provided a private place to grieve and reconnect as a family “in a time of turmoil”.
“As we are a family of neurodiverse people, having the house as a sanctuary to retreat to was invaluable.
“We were able to concentrate our energy on celebrating the last days with our loved one as all our needs were taken care of. As this was during the holiday period we were able use the house to cook an early Christmas dinner and share a lovely family meal at the in-patient unit with him.” Open day visitors will be able to walk through Kowhai House, paediatric arm Rainbow Place - the only children’s hospice in NZ, day clinics, creative therapy and counselling facilities.
Poole said this was an opportunity for people that didn’t have a reason to come on site and view the facilities that were offered.
“We’re going to have a number of our staff available to talk about what we offer to the community.”
Chief Executive Craig Tamblyn would also be available to chat in person, she added.
“There'll be certain areas, that as you can understand, we won't be able to show people through. (But) it's a great opportunity for people to come and see the wonderful service that we deliver at no charge to our community.”
Every half hour between 11am and 12.30pm, there will be a short presentation to tell the hospice story, followed by the volunteers serving Devonshire tea.
Hospice Waikato was the second largest in the country and covered the second largest geographical area, from Coromandel to Taumarunui. About 70% funding came from Ministry of Health and the balance was made up from the community.
“That's why it's really important for us to be able to connect with our community,” Poole added. The cost of living crisis had an indirect impact on the charity organisation passed down by the “whole supply chain”.
“In comparison to last year, we've probably seen about a 10% cost increase from our consumables.”