Totara Hospice says it has to cut patient numbers by about 100 a month to adequately provide services. Photo: RNZ
An Auckland hospice is being forced to cut the number of people it cares for in their final days by almost a third.
Totara Hospice gets $8.8 million dollars from the government - but that does not even cover the wage bill, so it fundraises on top of that.
Faced with a shortfall of millions, chief executive Tina McCafferty sounded the alarm bell to try and ward off cuts. But with no solution in sight, McCafferty told Checkpoint that cuts in numbers had started this week.
"We have between 420 and 450 patients and families in any one month, and what we are having to do is cut that back to about 320, 330 at the moment, and there may be further cuts.
"We are so desperately sorry for the unavoidable suffering and distress that this will cause."
McCafferty said patients who need help with palliative care should contact their general practitioner, or their age-care provider.
"We don't want to put that burden on healthcare partners, and particularly not on patients and families, but we must have safe staffing and safe services with the allocated funding and allocated resources that we have."
Health Minister Simeon Brown told Checkpoint that Health NZ had increased funding to the hospice sector by 3 percent this year, as part of the government's increased spending on health.
Brown said their own financial reporting showed the government contributed 84 percent of the organisation's funding, which was higher than the 50 to 55 percent for most hospices.
But McCafferty disputed those figures.
"We are funded $8.89m from the government, but clinical wages alone are just over $12 million, and when you put the cost of clinical services on top of that, then you are looking at funding being around 56 percent for services and we just can't ask the community to bridge a gap of that size anymore.
"I think there is a bit of a disconnect between what the minister has been told by his officials. If the minister thinks that an $8.89m contract is 84 percent of $12m of clinical wages, then he has been advised incorrectly."
She said health providers in New Zealand were facing a "disempowered and broken system".
"So whatever is going on inside Heath NZ needs to be sorted by its board, by its Crown observer, by its new chief executive, because in the midst of what appears to be chaos, we meet with people who are trying to do a great job, but they say they can't do anything.
"People are suffering and what we need is appropriate and sustainable funding to meet the needs of palliative and end of life patients."
But Brown also said the hospice will need to explain why it has chosen to reduce services, despite increased investment.
He said the government has asked Health NZ and Hospice NZ to work on a sustainable funding approach for providing vital palliative care.
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