Palliative care facility on political agenda

Thursday July 13, 2023

Member for Mount Gambier Troy Bell is calling on the state government to investigate the potential for a dedicated palliative care facility in the region.

Mr Bell believes the facility should be based in Mount Gambier to service the nearly 70,000 residents in the Limestone Coast and recently presented a motion in parliament regarding the matter.

The Limestone Coast is currently serviced by a specialist palliative care nurse team which covers Mount Gambier to Bordertown weekdays.

“Our local hospital has one dedicated but not exclusive palliative care room, which is situated in an environment that struggles to provide person-centred care that meets the holistic, cultural, and spiritual needs of the patient and their loved ones,” Mr Bell said.

Recently, Mount Gambier In Home Hospice Care was introduced, providing vital non-medical support and assistance to help ease the burden on carers and families, allowing patients to stay home and out of hospital for longer.

Mr Bell said he wants a facility that provides a homelike environment for people with a chronic, life-limiting illness and respite for patients and carers, can be a home to the specialist palliative care unit and in-home hospice service, can enable student nurses and doctors to specialise in palliative care and gives people a choice in their end-of-life journey.

“Too often in regional areas we lack access to the same services our metropolitan counterparts enjoy,” he said.

“Whilst we applaud the government’s recent addition of an additional part-time specialist care nurse to the Limestone Coast, there is still much more to be done and many gaps that need to be filled.”

Mount Gambier’s Annette Smith has a terminally ill 53-year-old sister with severe lymphoedema in her right arm who requires 24-hour care, and she said the lack of resources for people in her sister’s age group was an issue.

“If you are below the age of 65, there is no actual place you can go to here in Mount Gambier or anywhere else in this region that will have 24-hour care,” Ms Smith said.

“With my sister’s situation, there is nowhere she can go except for an aged care facility because of her age group.

“It does not matter if it is a 53-year-old, a 28-year-old, even a 20-year-old, if they have got a situation where they need 24-hour constant care, families can only do so much.”

Ms Smith moved out of her home to care for sister Glenys round-the-clock, and as she can no longer do so, Glenys moved to the Mount Gambier Hospital because there was no other option.

“She is taking up a bed that could be there for somebody who needs the bed, and she cannot go into aged care because there are no beds in aged care, but she is only 53,” she said.

“We really do need some form of palliative respite facility that can cater for people; not just for Mount Gambier, but for the people of the region, because you think about how many people are affected by a terminal illness and they are in that age bracket.

“It seems ridiculous that my sister is going from hospital into an aged care facility.

“We really do need a facility that is for respite and also end of life care.

“It gives people the dignity they require.”

Mount Gambier’s Gail Richards’ grandmother Fay Lamond was diagnosed with Stage 4 bowel cancer in 2020 and since her passing, Ms Richards has become a passionate advocate for palliative care.

“My gran was also my grandfather’s carer as well, so over that journey while she was unwell, we got him respite and ended up at Sheoak Lodge in Millicent, because there were no places in aged care at that time in Mount Gambier for the time that we needed it,” Ms Richards said.

After Fay’s surgery in March 2020, she needed to be transferred from hospital to a respite facility, and as there were no beds available in Mount Gambier again, she was transferred to Millicent’s Boneham Lodge, separating her from her husband of 64 years.

“Very early May her health had really deteriorated and she went to Millicent Hospital and we had her transferred into the Mount Gambier facility into the private ward and she spent her last three weeks in the Mount Gambier Hospital,” Ms Richards said.

“People go into hospital, they do not want that clinical environment, they want friends and family, people want to be able to stay with their loved ones in those final days and weeks.

“You want a very peaceful and warm environment for the families and the patients as well.

“I also think the big thing is for the hospital, there is nowhere else, there is no point having everyone in the room at the same time, but everyone wants to be close by, so you have not got that opportunity to sit somewhere for a while and come back into the room.

“Also, having dedicated palliative care staff who are able to care is certainly something I think is so important.

“Not everyone has family to support them through their journey, in an ideal world everyone has got that, but a lot of times they do not.

“We always think that palliative care is for older people, but do not forget that young people have terminal illness.

“To take it to the next step, we need a feasibility study.”

In The News