The Year in Review 2019-2020

Data and Information

Hospice NZ’s annual service data cycle provides a crucial understanding about hospice services. In 2019/20, the commitment of our members in the programme has resulted in continued improvement in data quality and content.

For the year ending June 2020, we had all 27 full member hospices, and 3 associate hospices submit data for analysis for both direct patient data, and community services data.  We were able to show that 54% of people using hospice services who identified as Māori died at home in the community. In addition, the data provided new insights into numbers of patients with an iwi affiliation and reinforced the fact that hospices are seeing an increase of patients who have any diagnosis of dementia at 60.5%.

Late in 2018 hospices were surveyed for the first time about the support services they provide outside of direct patient care. This was the start of a process to be able to illustrate this key contribution that hospice services make to quality palliative care across sectors. These insights can assist hospices to organise their resources and communications with other healthcare providers. Over the last two years hospices have continued to contribute clinical, educational and other types of support to organisations in their communities resulting in year on year increases, for example we saw a 17% increase for the year ended 30 June 2020.

Hospice Costing Project

The Hospice Cost Identification Project involves a standardised approach to identifying both the cost of hospice resources and costs associated with revenue generation for hospices, such as retail. This information is crucial for Hospice NZ’s national advocacy work.

The results from the survey also enable participating hospices to consider resource allocation and trends within their own services. This supports decision making and helps establish a shared language between hospices.

Hospice NZ website

In May 2019, Hospice NZ launched our new website. We updated the look and feel to be more representative of our community, use our video stories more prominently and ensure the content is accessible across all forms of mobile devices. In addition, we created an intranet where Hospice staff from across the country can connect, share resources and more.

Hospice NZ’s website is a critical information source for patients and families across New Zealand who have first been referred to hospice, and we’re extremely grateful to Craigs Investment Partners for supporting this project.

Seeking the Declaratory Judgement from the High Court around the End of Life Choice Act

In April 2020 Hospice NZ petitioned the High Court for a Declaratory Judgement related to our concerns at the lack of clarity in the End of Life Choice Act.  This action was necessary to fully understand the potential implications of the then proposed Act ahead of the election.   Justice Mallon’s Judgement released in June gave excellent guidance to both hospices and all providers of palliative care.

Te Rōpū Taki Māori

The advisory group Te Rōpū Taki Māori (HNZ) provides support and advice to Hospice NZ and our Board assisting us with tikanga me kawa (procedures and protocols) and ensuring Māori palliative care needs and values are reflected in our national projects and initiatives. We are sincerely grateful to this group and their hospices for their continued support in 2019/2020.

Hospice Awareness Week

Hospice Awareness Week is an opportunity for hospices to profile and celebrate the services they provide in their local communities, to address misconceptions that people may have around hospice care, and to encourage the New Zealand public to support their local hospice.

Hospice NZ coordinated a national awareness week in 2019 in conjunction with our members across the country. We provided member hospices with a range of personalised materials to give a consistent look and feel to the overall campaign. Hospices across the country supported the national campaign with initiatives such as open days, pop-up cafés, symposiums, roadshows and local media coverage.

In 2020, Hospice Awareness Week took a much lower profile due to the impact and uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 in communities across New Zealand.

Support Hospice Network Groups

Hospice NZ hosted ten network meetings in 2019 with strong representation from our members. Mostly held in Wellington at the Home of Compassion, the workshops give hospice professionals the opportunity to network and share information and ideas with their colleagues across the country, and explore how each hospice approaches their programme.

• Medical Directors – 20 attendees representing 19 hospices
• Retail Managers – 27 attendees representing 22 hospices
• Educators – 26 attendees representing 20 hospices
• Family Support – 30 attendees representing 26 hospices
• Managers of Volunteer Services – 21 attendees representing 19 hospices
• Quality – 20 attendees representing 17 hospices
• Spiritual Care – 16 attendees representing 15 hospices
• Fundraising & Marketing – 29 attendees representing 22 hospices
• Nurse Leaders – 24 attendees representing 22 hospices
• Kaimahi Hui – 25 attendees representing 12 hospices

While the majority of our workshops have been cancelled in 2020 due to COVID-19, Hospice NZ moved quickly to establish online meetings and workshops to connect hospices throughout the country, enabling members to support each other and share practice and resources.

Conference 2020

Unfortunately Hospice NZ’s Palliative Care Conference, Whiria ngā tāngata – Weave the people together, was postponed to 2021 due to COVID-19.

Foundations of Spiritual Care

The Foundations of Spiritual Care programme targets the spiritual care training needs of staff and volunteers working in hospice teams. The programme is delivered by cultural and spiritual care advisors and explores wairuatanga/spirituality and spiritual care at the end of life.

The aim is to improve the spiritual wellbeing of staff working at hospices and the provision of spiritual care for patients, families and whānau. The programme has been reviewed and updated this year.

Standards of Palliative Care & Quality Review Programme

The Hospice NZ Standards for Palliative Care (4th edition) were launched in 2019. In August 2020, a survey showed that approximately 90% of hospices were already using, or in the process of introducing, the Standards to support and review the delivery of their services.

Cancer Research Trust Palliative Care Lecture Series

Hospice NZ continued to offer monthly palliative care lectures to healthcare professionals with an interest in palliative care throughout 2019 and 2020. National and international guest speakers presented on a range of topics such as palliative care for people with intellectual disability, pressure injury prevention and skin care at end of life, traditional Māori end of life customs and palliative care for dementia.

The lectures are delivered and presented via teleconference at hospices and other registered sites throughout the country. They are attended by many health professionals from across the health sector, including our colleagues in aged residential care, primary health and hospitals.

Generous funding from Cancer Research Trust New Zealand enables these lectures to be accessed free of charge.

Fundamentals of Palliative Care Programme

The Hospice NZ Fundamentals of Palliative Care programme is designed to provide all health professionals and care staff working with people facing a life-limiting illness, and their families and whānau, with a range of skills and knowledge.   During the year we have been working on developing blended learning for the programme, meaning people can study online a time that suits them and follow up with face to face learning at a hospice should they wish too.  The goal is to roll this out nationally during 2021.

BNI Palliative Care Scholarship Programme

Since 2007, our national partner BNI New Zealand has supported hospice staff members across the country to complete postgraduate education via the BNI Palliative Care Scholarships Programme. Over the years, BNI has donated more than $173,000 to fully fund the programme.

The focus for the 2019 and 2020 rounds of scholarships was the professional development of hospice psychosocial and allied health teams. In 2019, Hospice NZ received 20 high calibre applications and awarded 10 scholarships; in 2020 we received 18 applications and awarded 11 scholarships.

Our sincere thanks to our national partner BNI New Zealand for their continued support of this valuable programme.

National Partnerships

• More than $759,000 was donated to hospices across the country in 2019 thanks to the support of Farmers Department Stores and their customers in the lead up to Christmas. This was the sixth year of our national Christmas campaign – to date more than $4.2 million has been raised to help keep hospice services free of charge.
• The ongoing commitment of our great friends at House of Travel has seen over $2 million raised for hospices over the years and 2019/2020 was no exception – stores across the country continued to support their local services in a myriad of ways while also raising awareness of hospice in New Zealand communities.
• BNI New Zealand’s extraordinary support saw over $282,303 donated to hospices in 2019 – more than $2.25 million has been raised by this extraordinary network of businesses since our partnership began. With a philosophy of ‘Givers Gain’, BNI New Zealand also sponsored the BNI Palliative Care Scholarship Programme again in 2019/2020, supporting the professional development of hospice psychosocial and allied health staff across the country.
• Ten hospices benefitted from the Hospice NZ Grants Programme in 2019, proudly supported by the Harcourts Foundation. $64,000 was donated to fund key capital items for hospices in 2019, with over $195,000 generously donated since the programme began in 2017.
• Our sincere thanks to Dilmah who once again kept every hospice in New Zealand in supply of the world’s finest tea, and to Craigs Investment Partners and Quest Apartment Hotels for their continued support as Hospice NZ’s valued national supporters.  

Charitable Trusts & Foundations

During the year we were grateful to receive grants and donations from a number of trusts and foundations.
Our sincere thanks to:

• VMD Collier Charitable Trust
• Cancer Research Trust New Zealand
• Pub Charity
• New Zealand Lottery Grants Board

Hospice NZ provides an online donation facility that allows people to donate securely to the hospice of their choice. We pass on 100% of every donation made to the hospice nominated by the donor. In 2019/20, our member hospices received $122,754 of donations via our website. Hospice NZ received $13,406. Thank you for your generous donations towards hospice care in New Zealand.