A provincial commitment to add beds to Victoria Hospice means a lot to Sarah Durno, whose father had end-of-life care there five years ago.
By the spring, there will be eight new beds at the facility — bringing the total to 18 — and seven beds in a new palliative and supportive-care unit in the Royal Jubilee Hospital patient-care centre.
The additions are being made possible by $5.8 million in annual funding.
Durno said her father was moved to hospice after receiving cardiac care at Jubilee.
“When it was time for him to transition to hospice, my mom and I didn’t really know what to expect.”
As they arrived there with her father, “before us was an assembly of angels and nurses and staff and volunteers, and they seemed to be just all assembled there waiting just for us.”
Durno said staff made her father comfortable, then looked after her and her mother.
“At that moment, it really struck me that this wasn’t just a place for patients to be cared for, but also for family and caregivers and the communities that all followed patients who come to hospice,” said Durno, who went on to become a hospice volunteer. “And that’s what makes Victoria Hospice so special, and that’s why today’s announcement is so important.
“Because these new beds will give so much to the people who pass through these halls and elevators, and on their last journey with the people who love them.”
While beds at hospice are primarily to provide comfort, the new Royal Jubilee patient- care-centre unit will give patients more timely access to laboratory, diagnostics and special procedures to treat pain and other symptoms that sometimes accompany end of life, said Island Health CEO Kathy MacNeil.
Victoria Hospice began in 1978 and now serves about 500 people a year at its home in the Richmond Pavilion on hospital grounds and another 500 in the community.
“Over the years, Victoria Hospice has provided valuable services to the community, including creating a palliative-response team in 1989 and taking leadership for hospice beds right here at Royal Jubilee Hospital from 1995 onward,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said at an Wednesday event to announce the new funding, held at the hospice’s rooftop garden.
The beds to be added are “a game-changer” because they increase the capacity of the system, Dix said. “More and more people are asking for hospice care and partly that’s because of the extraordinary care given in hospice.”
