Waipuna Hospice

Waipuna Hospice provides specialist palliative care for patients living with a life-limiting illness, and support services for them and their families. Our geographical area covers Waihi Beach to Paengaroa and while our focus is on Hospice at Home, we have an Inpatient Unit for short term admissions and provide Outpatient Services.

You will often hear the term palliative care which means alleviating without curing. Hospice specialises in providing palliative care – symptom control and pain management where cure is no longer an option. We also offer support services to patients and their support networks whether this be family/whanau, friends, neighbours, or staff at rest homes and hospital.

Hospice staff and volunteers care for each person as an individual and take into account the person’s physical, emotional, social, cultural and spiritual needs. In addition to palliative nursing care and specialist medical support, we provide respite care, practical support such as meal preparation, bereavement support and a chaplaincy service.

This year we expect to care for about 1000 patients and provide support services for their families.

Last year our nurses made more than 14,320 visits and over 20,000 phone calls to patients in the community.

Waipuna Hospice is not funded by government, while some of our services are contracted from the District Health Board. We need to raise $4.25 million in the coming financial year to meet the shortfall in our operating costs. That’s just under $82,000 per week!