Northland Hospice leaders have issued a stark warning this Hospice Week: Without a funding overhaul, core services could disappear within years. Insets: North Haven Hospice CEO Helen Blaxland (top) and Mid-North Hospice CEO Cristina Ross.
Northland Hospice leaders have issued a stark warning this Hospice Week: Without a funding overhaul, core services could disappear within years. Insets: North Haven Hospice CEO Helen Blaxland (top) and Mid-North Hospice CEO Cristina Ross.
Hospices in Northland are sounding the alarm about their future, saying they may be forced to drastically cut services or shut down entirely within the next two to five years.
Northland hospice management said this may be their reality in the near future if the current funding model doesn’t change.
Hospice Awareness Week runs until Sunday, May 18, and leaders in the organisation have called for more funding.
In Northland and Far North, where patients are burdened with doctor shortages and unable to get appointments, they rely heavily on hospice services, and the loss of services could be detrimental, says North Haven Hospice chief executive Helen Blaxland.
“That means we have to raise over $4.5 million from the community each year, and in Whangārei we are not a wealthy population so it’s not easy.
“This is not sustainable, we won’t go past three or four years if we don’t get an increase in government funding and that is not an idle threat … We are at risk of disappearing and falling off completely.”
She said they have dipped into their reserves, which was not ideal but was necessary to keep services going.
Hospice Mid-North has had significant patient growth in recent years.
“It’s not fair that the community has to fund at the level that they have to.”
Mid-Northland Hospice chief executive Cristina Ross echoed the sentiments and said they have to raise around $1.5 million each year.
“We have had significant patient growth in Kerikeri alone. Per capita, Kerikeri has a higher concentration of retirement homes and old-age residential care.”
She said while Kerikeri is seen as more well off, there was still a lot of deprivation and people needing their services.
“It’s getting really dire. Many hospices are dipping into their reserves just to balance their books, and that is not a sustainable model.”
The acting national director for planning, funding and outcomes at Health NZ Te Whatu Ora, Jason Power, said the agency remains committed to ensuring palliative and end-of-life care, and it is working through increases in funding for hospices.
“We are currently working through uplifts or increases for the funded sector, which includes hospice. Hospices will be advised of the level of uplift, with other contracted providers, when the uplift is confirmed.”
He said that for the 2023/24 financial year, Health NZ provided $113.6 million in funding to 28 hospices.
“We are committed to working with hospices and a range of other services to ensure palliative care meets the needs of all New Zealanders and their families. We regularly engage with hospices and Hospice New Zealand, and they are very much front and centre of our National Palliative Care Work Programme that is under way.”
Hospice NZ chief executive Wayne Naylor. Photo / Hagen Hopkins
Hospice NZ chief executive Wayne Naylor said hospices would only see change if more funding was made available.
He said Hospice NZ had given the previous Government and Health NZ information on the impact hospices have.
It had shown them that on top of the care and support hospices give families, hospices save millions of dollars by keeping people out of ERs and hospitals and helping to reduce visits to GPs.
