Hospice continues to offer specialised care
Chairman Con Roux is positive that the process will reinvigorate the organisation and its services
Hospice East Rand is still offering quality specialised palliative care despite facing severe financial constraints.
During the recent 35th AGM, chairperson Con Roux stressed that finances remain of crucial concern.
While delivering his report, Roux stated that during the 2021 and 2022, Hospice East Rand incurred a financial loss of over R930 548. That is compared to previous year’s R391 268.
“This loss in not sustainable and deeply concerning,” he said.
“Considering the impact that Covid-19 pandemic had on NPO’s fundraising efforts this loss is not surprising. This was further driven by the drop in patients under our care. Such numbers have not yet recovered.”
He attributed the loss to a decision by Discovery Medical Aid, formerly a strong supporter of Hospice, to establish its own in-house palliative care programme.
Hospice also does not receive any funding from the Department of Health.
He said that the board and organisation are grateful to all donations received, especially a R530 000 donation from Federated Employees Mutual Assurance Company (FEM), with a further R350 000 donation pending from two independent donors.
Con Roux explained that Hospice East Rand provides home-based palliative care to patients not only focusing on their medical needs but also psychological, pain management as well as guidance and emotional support for their families.
In the past year Hospice East Rand offered care to 464 patients, of which 319 were cancer patients.
The interdisciplinary team spent a total of 8 786 hours attention to a total of 5 639 home visits during this time.
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