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CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S REPORT
This year has seen COVID continuing to impact our patients and their families and our staff and volunteers. Our focus has been on keeping our staff and volunteers safe to ensure our patients and families continued to receive the care they needed. I am proud of the way our team stepped up to the challenges to maintain the quality care we are known for.
Service Highlights
care in the lead-up to the end-of-life, good comfort (compassionate) care at the end-of-life and helpful whānau support during and after the illness, and the end-of-life (including spiritual care and grief support).
Our people
Recruitment of clinical nurse specialists and registered nurses to our hospital, inpatient and community teams has been challenging because of the competition from all health providers to meet staffing gaps. We were fortunate to achieve full staffing across all our services by the end of the year. My thanks to our Retail Staff who stepped into the essential roles of Housekeeping, Kitchen Support and Reception duties while all volunteers were stood down during the lockdowns.
We congratulated Peter Godden-Steele, Director
of Nursing and Clinical Support Services, for being awarded the Nga Tohu Angitu 2021 award for Excellence in the Workplace in recognition of his work in establishing Hauora 5x5, the Wellness Programme at Te Omanga, implementing a ground up approach to wellness.
We also congratulated the Fundraising team for being “Highly Commended” by the Fundraising Institute
of New Zealand at their annual awards ceremony for excellence in the field of fundraising for a community event or initiative. This year’s Vintners’ Lunch event raised over $300,000 for the patients and families we care for.
End of Life Choice Act
The Act came into force on 7 November making
Having learned from the previous year, the team stepped back into our lockdown processes seamlessly. They were well prepared which meant restrictions on available beds and on visitors in the inpatient unit saw our community team step up to support our patients and their families in their own homes with an increase in the number of patients supported to die at home. Families were supported by our counsellors and therapists through digital sessions. The Telehealth and Digitally Enabled Health Services for Primary and Community Care programme was key to enabling this support. At times like this, our ability to take every part of our service out to patients and families in their homes was an advantage.
We have a strong commitment to increase the capability of others caring for their patients and residents with a palliative care need. Our teams working alongside staff in Hutt Hospital, Residential Aged Care and Primary Care have continued to support them to care for their palliative patients throughout the challenges of COVID.
We are committed to providing equity of access to our services. We have commenced consultation with local Iwi as we work together on meeting the needs
of our local Māori population. We are implementing the Mauri Mate/Māori Palliative Care Framework for Hospices developed in partnership with Totara South Auckland Hospice, Mary Potter Hospice and Te ORA (Te Ohu Rata o Aotearoa – Māori Medical Practitioners Association). This Framework has developed guidelines for hospices, so adult Māori receive access to good palliative care which includes good (quality)
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