Warm welcome for €1m hospice funding

APPEAL St Christopher's asks public to ‘open purse’ and raise €3M more for new facility

Funding of €1 million announced for St Christopher's Hospice will go a long way towards improved facilities at the facility but the charity is appealing to the public to raise €3M more to deliver a state-of-the-art hospice for the people of Cavan and Monaghan.

Health Minister Stephen Donnelly confirmed the funding on Friday, following the approval in October of a new palliative care facility to be built at the site.

The Minister announced the project on a visit to the centre a few months ago, when he said €7.5m would be spent on a 16-bed specialist palliative care inpatient hospice and community care facility.

Chair of St Christopher’s Jim Lalor warmly welcomed the news of the funding: “It’s a very big part of the €10 million that’s been announced for hospices [across the country]. We’ve got a very big chunk of that.”

The once-off funding is for palliative and end-of-life care across the country. The money will also be used to support palliative care services provided by voluntary organisations and support the financial sustainability of the voluntary hospice sector.

“What we’ll have now is a 16 bed, consultant led, fully fledged hospice, with everything that goes with a fully-equipped hospice. It’ll be the same as the hospice in Harold’s Cross and in Raheny,” says Jim.

While St Christopher’s has been an integral part of the Cavan community for years now and while most of the fundraising for it has taken place in the county, Jim is keen to stress the facility also caters for people in neighbouring County Monaghan.

“It’s for Cavan and Monaghan. Because it started out in Cavan it had kind of been confined to Cavan but now with the new configuration of the health area here, that has allowed us to bring Monaghan in because we’re natural bedfellows.”

Work is progressing well on the planning of the new facility. Tenders for the design stage will shortly be sent to architects across Cavan and Monaghan, with a planning application expected next year. Jim is hopeful the centre will be completed and open by the end of 2023.

“It has to conform totally with HIQA standards and the national palliative plan for hospices. It has to be strictly within the guidelines and that’s what it will be.”

Any centre being built to the calibre of this new facility will be a costly exercise, with €7.5m expected to be the price tag for this development. While some funding, like Friday’s €1m, has already been gathered, there’s still a sizable gap to be filled:

“We probably need to raise another €3 million so we’re calling on people now. The weight of the fundraising, 99% of it anyway, has been done in Cavan. We’re appealing to people in Monaghan now to open the purse.”

Support

There was widespread welcome for the funding on Friday afternoon following the announcement from Minister Donnelly, with local TDs Brendan Smith (FF) and Niamh Smyth (FF) praising the work of the hospice staff and board.

Jim Lalor is grateful of the support the organisation has been shown over the years but particularly in securing this funding and approval for the new facility: “We’re very grateful for the work of our own local Minister Heather Humphreys. She was great in getting us a foothold in the Department of Health. Up until then we were knocking on doors that didn’t open. It’s important we acknowledge Brendan Smith too as a former Minister who has been very helpful all along.”