As an election looms, one issue is the lack of residential hospice care as part of an overall end of life care strategy. A Needs Assessment was government’s delayed response to our business plan. It will not be completed in time to have any meaningful impact on planning for the current government, and the issue will likely be pushed further down the charts as a new government of whatever stripe fulfills its mandate.
When Lionel Kelland House started this process several years ago, Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia were the only jurisdictions without residential hospice. Nova Scotia now has three leaving us the only province without one. How much longer do we wait and when do we say enough is enough? We are where we are through the collective neglect of successive governments. While we bog ourselves down in red tape, a euphemism for delay, our most vulnerable people continue to die in inappropriate environments.