Hospice Info
What is Fundy Hospice?
Fundy Hospice is a proposed new residential-style hospice to serve the almost 40,000 people who live in Annapolis and Digby counties. A residential hospice is a home-like environment, where adults and children with life-threatening illnesses receive end-of-life care services. Fundy Hospice is the only proposed residential-style hospice for Southwest Nova Scotia.
What services will this hospice facility provide?
Fundy Hospice will provide free-of-charge palliative and hospice care services in a home-like setting. It will be a sanctuary for people facing life-limiting illnesses and their loved ones. It will offer respite and an easing of financial duress on families. Fundy Hospice will be a place that focuses on living well and sharing time with those who mean the most. It also will offer spiritual care for families where all are treated with dignity and respect.
When will Fundy Hospice be in operation?
The facility will initially offer 5 patient beds when it goes into operation in 2030. More beds will be added over time to meet the needs of the region.
Where will Fundy Hospice be located?
Fundy Hospice will be built on 6.63 acres in Cornwallis Park donated by the Annapolis Basin Conference Centre in 2019. It is a central location that will keep most commutes for patient families to within 30 minutes from most communities in the two counties.
How will you raise the millions needed to design and build the Fundy Hospice?
A multi-year capital campaign will be undertaken to raise the funding necessary to construct the Fundy Hospice by 2030. Our current estimate is $5.5 million.
What will it cost to operate the Fundy Hospice?
The annual operating costs for this 5-bed facility are expected to be a little more than $1 million. These costs include medical and administrative staffing, purchasing of local goods, and utilities.
Why does building this facility make sense within the Canadian healthcare system?
Hospice care is more compassionate and less costly than sending people to hospitals to receive end-of-life care. In general, an acute-care hospital bed costs about $1,100 per day. The daily cost per bed in a palliative-care unit is estimated to be $630 to $770. The daily cost per bed in a hospice facility is about $460. The least cost is in-home care, which is under $100.
Currently, Canada is the most hospital-centric country for the dying relative to Europe and the USA. Despite Canadians’ wishes to die at home, 60% die in hospitals, according to Statistics Canada. While 75% of Canadians would prefer to die at home, only about 15% have access to palliative home care services, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI).
Does Fundy Hospice Make Economic and Compassionate Sense?
Yes! When you look at the potential cost savings, and the stress it could remove from our hospital system, it makes great economic and compassionate sense to expand residential hospice care within our province by establishing a residential hospice to serve Annapolis and Digby counties.
