Kia ora, 

We want to keep you updated with what Hospice Tairawhiti is doing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are, like all of you are, committed to supporting the well-being of our staff, volunteers, patients, their whānau and the wider community at this time.
 
After the Government’s announcement to move New Zealand to a level-4 response, we have moved swiftly to put our full pandemic plan into action. As you know, we care for a vulnerable population in the Tairawhiti community.
 
As an essential service, we will continue to operate – but we’ll need to change the way we do this. Our aim is to carry on supporting patients with a life-limiting illness and their families this month. And to do this as safely as possible.
 
Here are some of the key measures we’re putting into place that you should know:
 
Clinical Service
We are still providing the best possible support and care to our patients and their whanau. We promise we will keep those of you in our care informed about what we’re doing.

Here is a brief summary about some of the changes we’ve made:

• We will call all patients prior to our team visiting. We'll be asking questions about their current health status and of those living with them.
• We will be reducing the number of face to face visits, and only visiting those who really need it.
• We are introducing video calls so that we can continue to interact face to face without risking the health of patients, whānau, and our staff.
• We are increasing the number of telephone calls to patients.
• Our clinical staff are refreshing their training around using personal protective equipment (PPE).
• Our loan equipment to improve patient’s quality of life has always been carefully cleaned and sanitised. We are stepping this up a notch.
• Our staff are a priority group for the flu vaccine and we are making sure they get that as quickly as possible
• We have postponed all volunteer-based patient services including Hospice Songster, Patient Support, and Biographies.
• The safety of our staff is critical if we are to continue giving necessary Hospice care. Please follow the Government’s guidelines. You will be directly helping some of the most vulnerable people in our community.

Hospice Office – Hospital Grounds
We have closed our Hospice office. Please do not visit our premise. All support staff are working from home. If you need to get in contact, please email, or call us on 06 869 0552.
 
Hospice Shop
Our charity shop at 66 Peel Street is now closed for the foreseeable future. We are no longer accepting donations. Please continue to put aside your good quality donations and bring them in when we reopen.
Thank you all for being such loyal supporters and donors of the shop. We know many of you are regular customers and we look forward to having you back in store in the future.
 
Volunteers
Many of you will be part of our over 200 strong volunteer network. We have postponed all existing volunteer activities at this stage. Some of our wonderful volunteers are in the at-risk categories being over 70 years of age so we’re looking out for them too.
 
Fundraising
All upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. However, we still urgently need your support. We rely on over $300,000 dollars in fundraising every year to support the work we do. With the closure of our shop and cancellation of our major fundraising events, we need your help. If you can give, please support us with a donation here.

Me mahi tahi tatou mo te oranga o te katoa
We should work together for the wellbeing of everyone

Thank you so much for your ongoing support of Hospice Tairawhiti and of each other. 

For more information on Covid-19 please visit covid19.govt.nz