Hospice hub one-stop shop for North Otago
Otago Community Hospice communications adviser Kelly Meade (left) and retail development manager Cat Callanan are excited for the Oamaru hub to reopen next week. PHOTO: NIC DUFF
The hub is back.
Otago Community Hospice will reopen its Oamaru hub on Monday.
The building on Thames Highway will house the hospice shop, accommodating two full-time care co-ordinators as well as a social worker twice a week and a councillor for a full week, once a month.
It will also have two palliative care doctors and a residential care nurse visit regularly.
The hospice has three night carers in North Otago and can also run education programmes for carers.
Otago Community Hospice chief executive Ginny Green is excited the hub is reopening.
While all of their services had still been available with the hub closed, it now became a "one-stop-shop" for North Otago, she said.
"It means that our clinical team are all co-located so there's no mucking around with being in different offices.
"Up until now, we've had to be all over the show so it's just pulling everyone back in together.
"It's a destination shop for the people of North Otago."
The hub was closed in 2023, after rotten floorboards were discovered.
What was originally intended to be a quick fix, turned into a long-term problem as almost the entirety of the flooring was rotten.
That has now been fixed and the building is in tip-top shape for Monday's reopening, which also coincides with Hospice Awareness Week.
Breen Construction did the work.
Otago Community Hospice has 23 patients in North Otago and averages five new referrals per month.
Their services range from in-home palliative care to working alongside Oamaru Hospital and other residential care facilities to offer its services.
Approximately only 15% of patients require a stay in the inpatient unit, so having a centralised hub in Oamaru allows easier access for all of their services.
The Hospice Shop is also an important way for the organisation to raise funds as almost 50% of their funding comes through fundraising.
A grand reopening is being planned for next month.
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