Recently I was involved in an important fundraising effort for Hospice Waikato that I thought BNI members would interested to hear about.
Last month, in December, House of Travel Waikato teamed up with BNI Cambridge to organise a raffle to support Hospice Waikato. Both groups have a long history of supporting the Hospice and the raffle we organised ended up being hugely successful. It raised in excess of $20, 000 to go towards the purchase of a Portable Ultra Sound Machine. Without the raffle, Hospice Waikato would not have been able to purchase this very important piece of technology.
With the recent change in the way palliative care services are delivered in the Waikato, Hospice Waikato is now the main provider for palliative care in the area. With a 28% increase in patient referrals this year, Hospice Waikato is managing an increasing number of people with life-limiting conditions who have complex medical problems. This means they need to provide more intensive and invasive treatments to manage these people’s symptoms and improve their quality of life, while at the same time doing their very best to keep people at home and out of hospital.
In order to do this, the Hospice needs to invest in new equipment and new technology to ensure they are keeping pace with advances in health care and are able to deliver the services the community expects. Having an ultrasound based at the Hospice will allow them to make diagnoses and undertake procedures previously only available at hospital. This includes procedures such as the drainage of excess abdominal fluid (paracentesis) caused by advanced cancer and bladder scans to check for urine retention, as well as diagnosing fluid on the lungs and clots in veins. With additional training for medical staff, they will be able to use the ultrasound for other diagnostic tests in the future.
The device to be purchased with raffle funds is the Fujifilm SonoSite NanoMaxx Ultrasound. This state-of-the-art machine, based on designs originally for the battlefield, is rugged and completely portable so can be used in both the Wellness Centre Out-Patient Clinic and the In-Patient Unit, and if necessary can even be used in a patient’s own home or in a rest home. This means the hospice’s medical staff can undertake some procedures and make clearer diagnoses wherever the patient is; resulting in faster relief of symptoms and preventing unnecessary trips to hospital.
Prizes in the raffle included a 7 night Fiji Holiday for two, 3 nights in Melbourne to see Mrs Browns Boys for two and a Samsung 43” Flat Screen TV. The fundraising effort was extremely successful and I’m very grateful to everyone who got involved and want to congratulate all the winners. These types of fundraisers don’t happen without a lot of support from the community so I want to personally thank everybody that got behind it – congratulations on the success guys!
From left: Pieta Mace, Manager House of Travel Cambridge & President of BNI Cambridge; Craig Tamblyn, CEO Hospice Waikato; Wayne, Cambridge Police; Mel Engelbrecht, BNI Cambridge
