Funding Fight

Queensland Health Minister Cameron Dick wrote to Little Haven in response to the minister’s office having received 33 letters of support for Little Haven from 13 GP’s and 20 community members. In that letter the minister made the claim that funding for Little Haven was difficult as the Federal Government was drastically cutting funding of

At request of the Productivity Commission LHPC Business Manager Sue Manton compiled and submitted LHPS’s 3rd submission and significant documentation for their consideration in compiling their final report and recommendations, which is due for submission to the Minister in October with public release at sometime in the future. Download our 3rd submission to the Productivity

The Local branch of the Labor Party writes to QLD Health Minister Cameron Dick requesting a review of Little Haven’s funding.

Today in the House of Representatives I spoke about the important service Little Haven provides to people with terminal illnesses and chronic conditions, who require palliative care. Palliative care services, like Little Haven, have long been neglected. It is essential we treat the dying with the respect and dignity they deserve. These people have built

Traveled to Melbourne to attend the Productivity Commission public hearings inquiry into Human Services Reforms. At the hearing we were allocated 30 minutes to address and answer questions from the Commissioners. It is heartening to have our Community Based Palliative Care model scrutinised by economists whose comments and questions included: ” there’s a lot of

Submitted or application for one off Queensland Department of Health funding for Quality Measures, Accreditation & Data management. LHPC had been invited to apply for one off project funding for quality management measures in the boards meeting with QHealth at Nabour in June . This one off funding is important as it will enable Little

As reported in the Gympie Times article Grim view for Gympie cancer care funding 12 July 2017. QHealth funds approximately one-third of Little Haven’s expenses. The gap in Little Haven’s 2016/17 financial year is about $500,000. This has now become beyond the ability of a small community, albeit a very generous community. This year, Little Haven will

Federal QLD Labor Senator Claire Moore, who has a special interest in Palliative care, travelled to Gympie to meet with us to discuss and see first hand our Community Based Model of Palliative.

Submitted our in-depth response to the Productivity Commission Draft Report. In this, our second submission we offered our comments and feedback on recommendations of the draft report. Download our 2nd submission to the Productivity Commission here. It is in PDF Format.  

President Brandy Murley, Clinical Coordinator Bronwyn McFarlane, Carer Advocate Ray Currie and I met at Nambour Hospital with QHealth Assistant Senior Director, Strategic Policy and Legislation, Branch Graham Kraak, Anthony West QHealth Community Funding Unit & Cang Dang SCHHS Service Director Community Integrated and Sub-Acute Services. Whilst we were again told there was no additional

Our Federal Member Llew O’Brien brought federal Assistant Health Minister David Gillespie to Little haven to have a first hand look at our facilities and what a successful Community Based Palliative Care organization looks like.

Productivity Commission Draft Report released – To our delight Little Haven and our model of care was highlighted throughout the report. This was the start of our second submission with our comments and feedback on recommendations of the draft report.

Coinciding with National Palliative Care Week an on air Interview with Annie Gaffney ABC Sunshine Coast – offered again an important opportunity to publicly showcase our incredible model of community based care.  Read more. Listen to Interview

As per directive from Cameron Dick’s office we met with the SCHSD at Little Havens office. While Kevin Hegarty did not attend, he sent Kerrie Hayes –Executive Director of Clinical Services, Cang Dang- Service Director Community Integrated and Sub-Acute Services and Dr Louise Welch to basically tell us there was no more funding. Instead the

In the May budget the Federal Govt announced $8.3m in new money to Primary Health Networks for coordination of end of life care. We requested a meeting with The Director of the Wide Bay Primary Health Network (PHN) Pattie Hudson, to implore them to be one of the 10 pilot sites for this funding initiative.

Armed with funding information from our phone conference Federal Assistant Health Minister David Gillespie MP phone conference we wrote to Qld Minister for Health Cameron Dick (read our letter and his response here) setting out our case and requesting a face to face meeting. At this point the minister refused to meet with us instead

As a follow up to that meeting Our Local Federal Member Llew O’Brien orchestrated a Conference call with the Federal Assistant Health Minister David Gillespie MP. This was our first opportunity to put our case to the Federal Government who is ultimately responsible for Health funding. His response was the Federal Government provides the states

President Brandy Murley and I arranged a very productive first meeting at LHPC with Sharon and Llew O’Brien MP – Federal Member Wide Bay where we presented our issues, which has proven to be the beginning of a very productive working relationship with Llew championing Little Haven’s cause with the Federal Government.

Submitted Gympie Times Letter to the Editor in response to Gympie Times article Dealing With Death feature 3rd March which quoted  – “Health Minister Cameron Dick said each hospital and health service was best placed to determine how their share of the palliative care funding was spent.” The GT letter and subsequent social media campaign

The Inaugural Glitz and Glamour fundraising event and the associated coverage by Seven News Sunshine Coast on Little Havens service and the very brave Bessie McClay. The Seven evening news story was turned into a video by Channel 7 and was viewed almost 22,000 times. Featuring what we do and our need for equitable funding

We had applied to be a presenter at the Compassionate Communities Symposium in Sydney coordinated by Palliative Care Australia. The stated goal of the symposium was The Symposium will bring together community leaders from local government, not for profit organisations and community groups to develop ways to support people at the end of their lives.

Completed and submitted Little Haven’s comprehensive submission to the Productivity Commission “Little Haven delivering … the right care, in the right place, and at the right time”. Download our 1st submission to the Productivity Commission here. It is in PDF Format.  

Pushed for and got a meeting with QHealth Community Funding Unit Anthony West and Racheal Vowles at QHealth HQ in Brisbane. The community funding unit is responsible for the bulk of our Qld Health funding. Left the meeting furious and in tears as I was told “increased funding for Palliative Care is not on the

Little Haven registers comminitybasedpalliativecare.org Domain name and Twitter handle @compalcare. Website built (Behind a construction wall for now)

The Productivity Commission’s Human Services Review Issue Papers released – prioritising end of life care as one of the six areas where outcomes could be improved both for people who use human services, and the community as a whole. Commenced work on our submission to highlight Little Haven’s Community Based Palliative Care model to this

As a board member of Palliative Care Qld, Sue Manton started discussions with the State Council to create a collaborative of the 7 NGO community driven models of Hospice Care who receive government funding from the Qld Health community funding unit.

Sue Manton’s half hour Community Based Palliative Care in Regional Areas presentation was our first opportunity to showcase our long history of international standard community based Palliative care and call for equitable funding to our industry peers and decision makers. View Full Presentation here Community Based Palliative Care

Meeting in Gympie with Dr Louise Welsh, Clinical Director, Specialist Palliative Care Service, Sunshine Coast Hospital and Healthcare Service to discuss Palliative care funding. Told there was no more funding and we were “Lucky to get what we get“.

Llew O’Brien congratulates Gympie’s Little Haven Palliative Care for Recognition in PC inquiry report The high quality service that is delivered by Gympie’s Little Haven Palliative Care has been recognized in the Productivity Commission Inquiry report – Introducing Competition and Informed User Choice into Human Services: Reforms to Human Services.  “For decades we’ve known Little Haven

Meeting with Pattie Hudson PHN CEO, Brandy Murley and Sue Manton LHPC to discuss financial support for Little Haven. We were happy to receive a commitment for one off funding $112K for after hours support to be paid in 2 installments of $42,500 commencing in June and $27,900 upon successful implementation of PalCare Software (July).

Today the senior hierarchy of QLD Health visited Little Haven for the first time in living memory.  Nick Steele – Dept Director General Health, David Harmer – Senior Director Strategic Policy and Planning and Anthony West  – A/Senior Director Community Services Funding Branch, Healthcare Purchasing.  They spent 3 hours meeting with the LHPC team and touring