Although it started out as hospice offering home based care services, White Rose has since also opened an IPU and a frail care unit to help alleviate the growing need, as the frail care units in the town have long waiting lists or cannot afford to offer this service. Ninety percent of White Rose's patients have HIV/AIDS with or without TB. The rest are cancer patients.
"The FNB Fund, through the FirstRand Foundation, has supported hospices in South Africa for a number of years. One of these is the White Rose Hospice in Mpumalanga. There are no other hospices in the direct area of White Rose and they do such phenomenal work," says Pearl Mphuthi, FNB fund manager.
"We opened our doors in 2002, when a gap in the medical sector was identified. There was a major need for basic general nursing care for the terminally ill of Witbank," says Magda Esterhuizen, the director at White Rose Hospice. "At the moment we are the only hospice in Mpumalanga with an IPU so our patients are being referred from all over Mpumalanga. We mainly look after less fortunate communities like our surrounding rural areas. Local government hospitals also refer patients to us to free up beds for more serious medical cases."
In 2013, White Rose's home based care programme was closed down for three months due to the lack of funding, and only started up in February 2014, but staff at White Rose Hospice soldiered on during this process.
"Our staff are totally dedicated to their work even when times are tough. As a hospice, White Rose is phenomenal, and their work is never-ending. We have managed to deliver an impressive service to a large community despite adversity," says Esterhuizen.
"We'd like to continue the work of the hospice and plan to expand our frail care unit with eight more beds. We'd also like to increase our IPU staff compliment, and as our home based care programme grows, we will need more care workers as well," she concludes.
