By Nathan Maki
Ottawa’s only live-in hospice may have to shut down its palliative care program if the Ontario government maintains its decision to cut a $535,000 grant it gave the hospice in 2001.
For four years, May Court Hospice has used this funding to provide constant nursing care for people living out their final days at the hospice. Its nine beds have always been full.
“They’re the only hospice beds of their kind that exist here in Ottawa and what would happen is that most of those people will end up in the hospital,” says Megan Doyle, May Court’s head of development. “It would be a tremendous loss.”
Doyle says May Court is not like a hospital. It is decorated in warm earth tones and donated artwork, and wide windows overlook a landscape of gardens and trees leading down to the Rideau River.
Hospital care for each patient would cost taxpayers between $1,200 and $2,000 per day, says Doyle, as opposed to $200 at May Court.
The hospice keeps costs low by depending on volunteers and community donations. The grant pays for nurses and caregivers. May Court adds $205,000 from their donation revenue to cover all other expenses.
May Court hopes to secure interim and eventually core funding. “The government should be doing this,” says Doyle. “We are right now in very friendly negotiations with them, but we don’t have anything concrete.”
Richard Patten, the MPP for Ottawa Centre, says he supports the hospice. He confirmed from Queen’s Park that the issue is currently under review, but had no further comment.
“The problem is there really is no recognition of palliative care in the government so there is no funding stream,” says Barbara O’Connor, May Court’s director.
“If we get no answer for even some interim funding, we’d have to close those nine beds. It would damage everything.”
The hospice’s other programs would continue, but O’Connor fears donations would suffer. Individuals donate over half of the $823,000 May Court raises annually. Many of those donors are family members who have experienced the value of the palliative program first hand.
Even if the grant is cut, O’Connor is determined that no patient will be left without a place to stay. “We would keep the place open as long as it took to find them spots.”
The nurses and caregivers whose salaries are covered by the grant would also lose their jobs. “They’re all feeling quite anxious,” says Doyle. “They love it here. They prefer it to working in a hospital setting because they’re able to give the kind of care that you might not be able to do in a big, busy hospital.”
Doyle says she is hopeful. “It would be an awful loss, and I hope it doesn’t happen, and I feel that our community won’t allow it to happen.”