Te Omanga hospice to be overtaken by new service

After a decade in Masterton Te Omanga Hospice's palliative care service will close at the end of August leaving four nurses out of a job.
The decision affects the Lincoln Road-based service's 95 current patients and their families and follows a 2006 DHB review, which said there were "gaps and duplications in services."
"A review of palliative care in Wairarapa found that while the services offered by Te Omanga and the community nursing service were highly regarded, and appreciated by the patients and their families, they were not well integrated with each other leading to both gaps and duplication in services," Wairarapa DHB chief executive David Meates said.
Mr Meates said a new "expanded palliative care service" to be named the Wairarapa Palliative Care Service would fully absorb Te Omanga's current roster of patients being cared for in their homes and in contracted beds in local private hospitals.
Four Te Omanga nursing staff and one part-time administrator will be made redundant but DHB director of planning and funding Joy Cooper said she hoped those staff would apply for positions on the DHB's community nursing service.
"We will employ specialist palliative care nurses and we will be expanding the community nursing team and adding some more highly trained nurses," Mrs Cooper said.
Te Omanga CEO Biddy Harford said she is disappointed by the decision but said "services will continue seamlessly we hope".
"It's the patient that's most important here they need to know that nothing will change for them&the; new service should ensure that palliative care within the region is better coordinated and reaches more of those in need," she said.
The new service is expected to be fully operational from September.
"Prior to this there will be a transition period between the current service and the new agreement, which will involve Te Omanga's specialist staff working alongside the community nursing service," Mrs Harford said.
Te Omanga owns the Lincoln Road building, which functions as a nursing base and community facility; Mrs Harford said trustees had not yet made a decision on whether it would be sold.
"We recognise the huge contribution the Wairarapa community has made to the property at Lincoln Road," she said.
Under the new partnership arrangement between Te Omanga, the DHB and the Wairarapa Primary Health Organisation Te Omanga will provide specialist palliative medical input and expert clinical advice, the DHB will provide palliative nursing for patients in hospital and the community, and medical input for patients in hospital; and the PHO will provide medical input for patients in the community, Mrs Cooper said.
Currently Te Omanga offers a service to around 95 patients and their families each year, with community nurses caring for a further 150 patients.
"Palliative care is the care of people of all ages with a life-limiting illness with no prospect of a cure, and for whom death is the likely outcome; be that hours, days, weeks, months or even years away," Mr Meates said.
"While not all people who die will need to access palliative care services, there are currently many who could benefit from this approach and care that do not receive these services," he said.
"Our goal is to ensure that those who are dying, and their family/whanau, receive the palliative care they require when they need it and that the care is provided in a culturally appropriate and coordinated way," Mrs Cooper said
The DHB will make contact with other stakeholders and service providers, including aged care services, Maori healthcare providers, and voluntary and community organisations leading up to the transition, she said.