Campaigners for a hospice in the midlands, the last region in the State to be without one, have described as “unexpected” a €20 million pledge from the Government towards its construction.
Prof Humphrey O’Connor, a founding director of Offaly Hospice Foundation, set up 32 years ago and which has raised more than €1 million over the past three years towards a hospice, believes it is the first time one has been funded by the State.
“If you look at the history of palliative care in this country, it has always been looked at as a charitable activity,” he said.
“As far as I know, this is the first time ever capital funding has been given to commission a hospice. If you had said to me a year ago this was going to happen, I would have said not a hope.
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“I don’t mean to seem damning, but this is unexpected.”
Prof O’Connor, a consultant physician, said it has taken years of fundraising, agitation and “several points of pressure, medically and politically, although it is a medical necessity not a political imperative” to secure its construction.
“We are absolutely delighted,” he said.
“Up to now, patients at the end of life have been left in a very difficult situation. They would leave the locality to try [to] avail of special palliative care units in Limerick, Dublin or Galway.
“It was the only alternative.”
Announcing the funding, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the new 20-bed unit, to be developed on the site of Midland Regional Hospital in Tullamore, Co Offaly, makes good on a promise in the programme for government to have a hospice serving every region.
“I’m aware of the enormous work and commitment that has been provided by voluntary hospice groups and colleagues in the Health Service Executive who have worked tirelessly with Minister [for Health] Stephen Donnelly to progress this much-needed service over the past 15 years, and the funding contributed to date,” he said.
The midlands hospice is expected to be completed by the end of 2025 and will provide daycare, outpatient, inpatient and community services.
Work done
Prof O’Connor said it would serve a region of 300,000 people in Offaly, Laois, Westmeath and Longford “who do not have a specialist palliative care unit. I hope this will be opened quickly enough. We have already produced plans which are deemed feasible on the site offered by the HSE, and we would love to see those plans progress. A lot of work has been done already, we are not at square one so things could happen quicker than expected.”
The Irish Hospice Foundation (IHF), the national charity for dying, death and bereavement, said the midlands hospice was “long-awaited” and that it had been campaigning for its construction for “many years”.
Siobhán Murphy, IHF director of healthcare, said a key recommendation of the 2001 Report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care was for a hospice to serve every HSE area.
“We have been highlighting the fact that the midlands was the last region in the country to have access to an inpatient unit,” she said.
“We wish to acknowledge the collective effort that has gone into securing this funding by the various hospice groups across the midlands who have advocated and lobbied so passionately for the development of this hospice.”