The directors of the Waterford Hospice Movement, who have helped to raise over €4.4 million to date for a new 20-bed palliative care unit, have expressed "great disappointment" that funding to open the facility has not yet been secured.
The hospice group says the unit, part of a new building on the grounds of University Hospital Waterford, is fully-equipped and ready to go but needs Government funding to allow staff recruitment take place.
The construction of the centre, which was completed earlier this year, followed years of campaigning in the region for a dedicated hospice unit which is the first in the southeast.
Local fundraising was led by the Waterford Hospice Movement, who committed several years ago to raising €6m towards the cost, and have gathered over €4.4m to date and transferred it to the HSE.
The hospice group says the unit, part of a new building on the grounds of University Hospital Waterford, is fully-equipped and ready to go but needs Government funding to allow staff recruitment take place.
The issue has been raised locally by politicians in recent weeks but it is only today that the Waterford Hospice Movement has spoken out, following a board meeting on Wednesday night.
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Directors of the movement met with four local Oireachtas members earlier this week to lobby them to bring the case to the Government for funding.
"The new unit, consisting of the ground and first floor of the new five-storey Dunmore Wing at University Hospital Waterford, was officially handed over to the HSE in April of this year," the board said in a statement today.
"However, to date, no budget has been provided to the HSE in relation to staffing and operational costs, despite the fact that budget and operational projections were prepared and submitted in advance of the completion of the building.
This state of the art centre, fully equipped and ready to go, lies empty and closed."
Now the board is concerned that the staffing process, when it starts, will take up to six months, meaning it will be at least mid-2020 before the hospice unit is fully up and running.
In a statement to RTÉ, the HSE confirmed that construction has been completed on the unit.
"The HSE has agreed to open the South East Specialist Palliative Care Inpatient Unit/Hospice located in Waterford before the end of this year. Funding to fully commission the 20 beds in the unit, along with a new daycare service, is being sought through the estimates process."
The HSE said that the centre will be "the hub for palliative care in the southeast and will build on the existing consultant-led integrated model of care in place across acute hospitals and community healthcare".
The hospice movement board today expressed "their great disappointment at this delay, in view of the enormous efforts that have been made by the volunteers, their fundraisers and the people of Waterford and south Kilkenny in providing donations for a home care service for the past 30 years, and the additional commitment made to donate €6 million to the cost of the new hospice unit, €4.4 million of which has already been transferred to the HSE."
They are now calling on members of the public to "voice their dissatisfaction" with the current situation "and make their elected representatives aware that the people of the southeast are tired of being ignored and neglected in relation to healthcare provision in general and now, sadly, end of life care".
