Hospice Vaughan announces 2 new fully furnished beds to improve access to palliative care

Yorkregion.com
Jan. 3, 2023

Hospice Vaughan’s new building, the Mario & Nick Cortellucci Hospice Palliative Care Centre of Excellence, will receive funding for two new beds.

The Ontario government announced on Thursday, Dec. 15, it would help expand care from the current 10 beds to 12 as of Dec. 19.

“Providing alternatives to care is something that's extremely important because it does take some of the pressure off of the hospitals,” said Michael Tibollo, MPP for Woodbridge-Vaughan and associate minister of mental health and addictions.

Tibollo also lauded the standard of care provided by Hospice Vaughan.

“You're providing and establishing standards of care that are going to be equitable and repeated around the province of Ontario,” said Tibollo.

Stephen Lecce, MPP for King-Vaughan and education minister, remarked at the size of the new facility.

“The hospice has been at the heart of our community for many years, when it existed in its more humble facility on Woodbridge Avenue,” said Lecce.

“(Tibollo) spoke about the expansion, the 20 per cent expansion. But in a year, that could be 40 families that could be impacted because of that expansion of resources and provincial funding for those two beds,” he said. “I’m told that’s what will make a difference. It is a large hospice.”

The government will provide $210,000 on annual basis for the two new beds, according to Stephanie Karapita, executive director at Hospice Vaughan.

Currently, the provincial government funds between 38 and 54 per cent of a residential hospice’s total budget of $105,000 per bed, according to the Hospice Palliative Care Ontario’s 2020 pre-budget submission.

Hospice at home and residential hospices like Hospice Vaughan make up the largest providers of bereavement support in the province, the paper said.

Hospices provide these supports through fundraisers -- and some hospices reportedly saw a 300 to 500 per cent increase in demand in the summer of 2020.