Hospice asking for your help

Rotorua Community Hospice Trust fundraising manager Jan Morgan ahead of the phone appeal starting next week.Photo/Ben Fraser

A vital Rotorua service is turning to the community in a bid to secure the funding it needs as demand continues to soar.

The Rotorua Community Hospice Trust is running its second telephone appeal from next week in a bid to raise enough money to meet the shortfall between operating costs and Government funding.

The trust's fundraising manager Jan Morgan said the demand for palliative care was increasing every year and the hospice needed to raise more than $700,000 each year to cover the funding shortfall.

Last year's telephone appeal raised more than $25,000 - and they're hoping to match it this year.

Ms Morgan said the appeal would go towards buying equipment for patients to use and helping with other costs, like running the vehicles which allow nurses and other staff to visit patients in their own homes throughout the day and night.

She said hospice care wasn't just for people with cancer but also for those who had illnesses such as heart, liver or kidney failure, chronic respiratory disease and neurological conditions.

"As baby-boomers age and the number of people with serious chronic illnesses continues to rise, the demand for palliative care services also increases."

Some illnesses had a much more intensive demand on the service, she said.

She said the organisation's goal was to help alleviate patient suffering through high-quality pain and symptom management and to provide added support for the patients and their families.

"Unfortunately high quality palliative care does not come cheap and whilst we are grateful to the Government we rely on the community for financial support to cover the funding shortfall, which is over $700,000."

Ms Morgan said the hospice required more than $1.5 million a year to run.

"The shortfall is increasing by $100,000 a year. When I first started the gap was $400,000, now it's $700,000."

She said there was a good level of support out there, something which she put down to people knowing they eventually they were going to die and that everybody deserved a good, dignified death.

She said the telephone appeal operators wouldn't be asking for credit card details over the phone, but would instead be asking for pledges to donate. Those who are willing to would then be sent an invoice, she said.