The head of a group aiming for a local palliative care and respite facility says the Lake Wakatipu Care Centre would be an ideal location.
The centre is being vacated later this year, patients moving to Arvida’s new facility at the Queenstown Country Club, but no decision has been reached on its future use.
Wakatipu Care Trust chairman Michael White said it would make sense with Lakes District Hospital right next door.
"This is our preferred location, but we’re not going to say we’re not going to do it if we can’t go there. We’ll just have to look somewhere else," Mr White said.
He said the trust had signed a memorandum of understanding with Southland Hospice to work towards a local facility. At present, the only option was moving patients to Invercargill.
A report by Arrowtown economist Benje Patterson showed between 40 and 50 Wakatipu residents would need some inpatient palliative care every year, Mr White said.
The trust was initially aiming for two care suites with support facilities.
Suites that also provided respite care for someone who was very ill were wanted, so both that person and their family got "a chance to recharge the batteries".
Queenstown Community Hospice general manager Marie Wales said the new Frankton facility was a base for staff and support services.
The next step was a facility such as the trust proposed — "there’s definitely a need for looking at the next five to 10 years for palliative care and end-of-life services for the Wakatipu Basin, because we know there’s significant growth", Ms Wales said.
"Whilst we’ve got a young population, we’ve still got a very ageing population — a lot of people are choosing to move here for retirement purposes," she said.
Mr White said while people mostly preferred to die at home, statistically, "there are more people who have to move into a hospice situation in the last 24 or 48 hours of their life", due to stress on families and the level of nursing required.
Ms Wales added that dying at home was not ideal for those renting or without family support.
