A Queenstown trust’s being set up to provide short-term overnight respite care for terminally- and seriously-ill patients.
Local Lions Club president Michael White, who chairs a steering group set up after he called a public meeting last year, says the Whakatipu Care Trust will aim to provide a community-funded facility somewhere in the Whakatipu Basin.
Presently, there’s no palliative care available in Queenstown, meaning those needing it often end up in Invercargill.
White says there are ‘‘many examples’’ in the community of people who need a facility to give them a break when they’re caring for pre- and terminally-ill family members, which isn’t currently available locally.
‘‘This facility would prevent the need for families to be separated by a two-hour drive to the nearest alternative.’’
Mountain Scene last month revealed Hospice Southland’s bought a Frankton home which it’ll use for office accommodation and to host patients for consultations and day-time activities.
Its resource consent application, however, stresses dying patients wouldn’t be overnighting there.
But White believes there’s demand for an overnight care facility, where patients could stay, at most, perhaps four or five days at a time, which would give their carers a good break.
It wouldn’t just be for elderly patients, he suggests, citing the example of migrants who don’t have extended families living here.
‘‘You could have a couple from Brazil, one of them gets seriously ill, and they have two children as well.
‘‘There’s nowhere to help them, their only facility at the moment is to go into one of the care homes, which is not ideal if you’re a young
person.’’
White believes it could start with two care suites alongside a communal family facility, and hospice nurses could well supplement staff who’d be employed.
No site’s been chosen, he adds, nor any consideration given to funding — ‘‘we’re in the very, very early stages.’’
The trustees will include representatives from the local Lions, Rotary and Altrusa clubs, supported by the Cancer Society and local GPs.
