Petition is successful with 5,803 signatures
To: Philip Kennedy Hospice
Save the Philip Kennedy Hospice
This campaign has ended.
As it stands they have lost government funding. This is a terrible disservice to the community and I'm hoping the government change their mind and continue funding so they can continue to help people at the end of their life.
Why is this important?
The Philip Kennedy Hospice at Largs Bay is unique in Australia. It is the only hospice under the roof of a nursing home. It is a 12 bed unit run by a very dedicated and experienced team of qualified nurses, many if whom have spent many years working there. The team is supported by local GP practices and also the Central Adelaide Palliative Service (CAPS) at The Queen Elizabeth Hospital. Patients are admitted from TQEH, community and other health care facilities. All are guesstimated to be in the last 3 months of their lives with a life shortening illness. Many are complex, have been through the hospital system and cannot be cared for at home. Many are admitted in crisis for the community. Approximately 300 patients a year are serviced through this hospice which has been running for over 25 years.
On Wednesday last week the government told Southern Cross Care (SCC), who's roof the hospice is under, that they will be withdrawing funding in December and therefore the hospice will no longer be open. The 12 beds will be filled with nursing home patients, qualified staff will no longer be required, SCC don't have enough positions to offer the approx 28 qualified nurses who work in the unit, many will be made redundant. But most importantly palliative patients will have nowhere to go. Not everyone can be cared for in the home, there is only so long a patient can be kept in hospital, if the hospital has a bed. The CAPS team is already stretched and now have nowhere to send their patients in crisis from the community but to emergency departments, where they realistically may spend their last hours in this earth.
All of this for $1million! That is the funding being withdrawn and apparently put back into other palliative services but not to provide alternative beds. The community of the western suburbs have been let down by the government and it is disgusting. I am hoping that you can at least spread the word on this matter so that the community are aware of this great impending loss. The politicians seem to forget that peoples lives are at the bottom of all this, yes it would be lovely to think that the terminally ill can all die in their own beds at home but this is not always desired, practical or possible. Ask the 33 year old single mother of 3 with a terminal brain tumour who will look after her at home?!