Sunshine Coast Hospice Society members Donna Shugar and Denis Fafard appeared at a regional hospital district board meeting Thursday to request support in their efforts to secure more hospice beds on the Sunshine Coast, a need for which Shugar called “immediate and acute.”
Shugar said Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) has agreed to fund the operation of four beds but only if a partnership is arranged for them to become part of an existing facility, and with a Trellis deal on the horizon, “VCH has agreed to explore ways that a charitable organization might be able to participate in a partnership with a private, for-profit facility,” said Shugar, adding that a meeting is expected to be scheduled in the next couple of months.
Trellis Seniors Services is a private company under contract to VCH that is expected to own and operate a long-term care facility on the Sunshine Coast.
But such a partnership is no sure thing. The hospice society has received legal advice that the arrangement isn’t permissible under Canada Revenue Agency rules, so they are exploring other options for suitable locations, including Shorncliffe and the grounds of Sechelt Hospital.
If the expansion occurs on hospital grounds or at Shorncliffe once it is repurposed, Shugar told the board they may consider asking the health minister to designate the new hospice wing as a hospital facility to make it eligible for regional hospital district funding.
The society also plans to launch a capital fundraising campaign of at least $2 million, once a location is found, and asked that a representative from the regional hospital district join the task force.
Later in the meeting, Sechelt Mayor Darnelda Siegers acknowledged extra beds “are sorely needed,” and asked chief financial officer Tina Perreault whether the hospital district “can fund anything that is not on hospital grounds.” Perreault confirmed funding is restrictive but that there are precedents in the province where other facilities, such as residential long-term care or hospice facilities, have been given the designation to permit funding from a regional hospital district.
“I think collaboration with the health authority is paramount, but it is definitely something that would require investigation,” Perreault said.
Siegers recommended “staying in close touch” with the hospice society in case the board can lobby to provide the additional beds.
Currently, there are two palliative care rooms at Shorncliffe, but for years the hospice society has made repeated requests for more.
Shugar said the need for beds is so great that an average of three people per month cannot be accommodated. “They end up dying at home – where their loved ones are burnt out, exhausted – or in hospital.”
Of the 125 people who died on the Sunshine Coast in 2016, 50 per cent received support from hospice.
