27 June 2023 // MEDIA RELEASE
More than 200 generous donors, supporters, local businesses, staff and volunteers gathered at Harbour Hospice in Takapuna on Saturday [24 June] to formally celebrate the end of an ambitious multi-million-dollar redevelopment project.
The official opening took on an extra special meaning, as 2023 also marks 40 years of hospice care in the community. Harbour Hospice Chief Executive Jan Nichols says, all of this is down to “the unwavering support and loyalty of the community.”
“Forty years ago, a pioneering group of volunteers started the very first hospice on the North Shore. We now care for more than 1200 patients and their families from Devonport to Te Hana each year, with more than 230 staff and 1200 volunteers.
“This vital redevelopment is a critical moment in Harbour Hospice history, giving us the ability to care for more people young and old, extend our reach into the community and lead the way in providing world-class, specialist end-of-life care,” Nichols said.
The charity reached out to the community to raise the $10 million needed to meet its ambitious $20 million target. “I already know this community is generous, but their loyalty to Harbour Hospice and belief in this project has been deeply humbling.
“More than 100 individuals, couples, families, trusts, foundations and businesses made gifts to this project, and we can’t thank them enough. We wouldn’t be here today, and the future would be very uncertain, without that support,” Nichols said.
The remaining $10 million was contributed from the North Shore Development Foundation built up by Hospice over many years.
The new and improved facilities have 15 patient rooms, a dedicated family and whānau area with two bedrooms, outpatient, counselling, therapy, day programme and training rooms, a commercial-grade kitchen in addition to improved facilities for its interdisciplinary team of specialist nurses, doctors, family support team, therapists and specially trained volunteers to provide 24/7 care and more.
Demand for palliative care across the region is expected to increase by 50% in the next 14 years, and 90% in the next 40 years.
And it’s not just the demand for inpatient beds that’s growing, Nichols says. “Throughout their illness people receive most of their care at home (or the place they call home) and thirty-seven per cent of people in our care die in their own home. This facility will enable us to extend our work out in the community, increasing our impact, care and support to more people.
“This facility is funded entirely by the community, for everyone right across Harbour Hospice. We are so very proud of what we’ve achieved together, which will serve the community for decades to come,” Nichols says.
