WELLINGTON COUNTY – It was an emotional morning for some of those who have spent years planning and advocating for a rural hospice site in Wellington County as the province confirmed its support.
In a news conference in the Aboyne Library at the Wellington Place campus, Perth-Wellington MPP Matthew Rae announced the province has approved funding for six beds at the Aboyne Rural Hospice.
He explained this is part of a larger announcement of 84 new hospice beds across Ontario with a total capital investment of $19.7 million and $16 million for operations.
The exact amount being spent locally is still being negotiated with the provider, Rae said after the announcement, and couldn’t be released at this time.
“This has been a long time coming in the community,” Rae said.
The Aboyne Rural Hospice site has been in the works by a group of current and former health care workers for over a decade but picked up steam in 2022 when the County of Wellington announced it would be donating a two-acre piece of land at Wellington Place near Groves Memorial Community Hospital for the hospice.
Official fundraising didn’t start until fall 2023 and has now reached $2.5 million, which was needed to apply for hospice funding announced by the province in September.
Dr. Sarah Gower, one of the doctors behind the planned hospice, was emotional at the announcement as she thanked the community and government officials for their support.
“In this room are a lot of patients who are not present who would have benefited from the hospice over the years and I think of them and the distances they travelled and the time that their families and caregivers put in to look after them,” Gower said through tears.
“To think that we’re going to be able to do that just down the road is just, it’s really phenomenal.”
The Aboyne Rural Hospice site was planned to have 10 beds in total and Gower said after the press conference it is still planned to get there eventually.
“We will plan to build to 10 and then we’ll be funded for six initially and then lobby for the additional four beds of funding down the road,” Gower said.
This is not an unusual path for hospice sites to take as Rae said another hospice site in Stratford similarly built for 10 and was funded for six initially and then was funded as the need for more funding was demonstrated.
The next phase of fundraising will begin which Gower said is called “back the build” for the rest of the capital funding.
The target for this will be known when the Aboyne Rural Hospice site knows how much funding it will get from the province. Gower is confident the community will be able to come together to fundraise.
“I think that there’s incredible depth and support in this community for projects that are close to home and that are meaningful for people,” Gower said.
