Otago Community Hospice - COVID-19 Update

We are committed to supporting the well-being of our patients and their families, as well as our staff and volunteers.

Given that we care for a very vulnerable population in the Otago region, we have over the last week been putting our pandemic plan into action.

As an essential service, we will continue to operate, but we will be working in different ways to ensure our 200 plus patients and their carers are receiving the care and support they need in a safe way. This means that there will be a lot more support given via the phone, rather than in person.

We are also working hard to ensure the many aged care facilities in our region have resources to support them and remain aware we have 24/7 telephone support available.

If you need to get in touch with us, our 24hr phone line is 03 473 6005 or 0800 473 6005.

Volunteers

We have postponed all volunteer activities until further notice.

Hospice Shops

Our Hospice Shops are closed. Please hold on to your goods for donation – we will need them but right now we have no staff available to process them. We will see a significant downturn in fundraising revenues over the next few months, and when our shops open again your donations will be crucial for our continuing service provision.

Fundraising

All upcoming events have been cancelled or postponed. Many grants have been put on hold, and our single biggest contribution to fundraising via the shops has fallen to zero overnight. We are entirely reliant on donations to get through the next four weeks or longer. If you can give, please do support us with a donation https://otagohospice.co.nz/donate

We thank you for your continued support of Otago Community Hospice. We hope you follow the government recommendations and stay safe, have plenty of food, books and entertainment to help pass the next four weeks by. And we look forward to touching base on the other side of this pandemic.

Ginny Green

CEO, Otago Community Hospice

USEFUL RESOURCES

Ministry of Health for latest updates https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus

New Zealand’s COVID-19 website https://covid19.govt.nz/