By Bellah Zulu, ACNS

The Anglican-run Holy Cross Hospice in Botswana is set to open an inpatient wing to enable it to effectively run its Palliative Care Program by giving nurses and social workers “more time to assist the patients with psychosocial support.”

Speaking in an interview with ACNS today, new Hospice Manager Tshenolo Pearl Ncube said the completion of the new project will enable them offer the “full spectrum of care normally provided by a hospice such as access to proper psychotherapy and bereavement counselling.”

She added, “The development of an inpatient unit will also help foster the education of capable and enthusiastic professionals by providing them a forum for training, practice and skill development. It should be fully operational next year.”

The Holy Cross Hospice is the only hospice currently operating in Botswana's capital Gaborone. It was established in 1994 and has been running a Day Care and Home Based Care programme and providing patients with “comprehensive psychosocial support services while supporting their families”.

“Since there is no structure for formal palliative care training in Botswana, we also hope we can become a national resource centre for training health staff in palliative care of patients,” she said.

“Fruitful discussions have already been held with a number of collaborating partners including the University Hospital of Lund in Sweden; a palliative care specialist from the University of Cologne in Germany; and the link Dioceses of Newcastle [in England] and North Carolina [in] the USA”.

The Holy Cross Hospice has struggled with funding for its projects but with the assistance of volunteer social workers, local and international nurses and other donors, it has managed to run an effective Palliative Care programme.

Goitseone Senokwane, 55, is one of the clients at the hospice. She said, “The hospice is doing a great job and I am excited about this new unit because people like me, who do not have caregivers, struggle to take care of ourselves.

“Sometimes you do not know where your medication is because you are really stressed of being alone and we end up not adhering to our treatment. The inpatient wing will improve what we already get from Holy Cross Hospice and I pray that God helps us get more assistance from other people to make this place run effectively.”

Ms Ncube explained that the new patient wing would be able to handle "four to six bedded inpatient units on our current site and allow us to offer 24 hour basic health care for the improvement of the quality of life and pain management for our patients.”

“The completion of this unit means a lot and will make a whole difference to our patients’ lives,” she said. “While we acknowledge that we cannot always save people’s lives, we can say that we have managed to help some people enjoy their last days."