FROM SMALL BEGINNINGS TO A LEADING PALLIATIVE CARE PROVIDER
The Plett Aid Foundation has evolved from a small, relatively unknown home-based care organisation with a dedicated team of eight clinical staff—comprising one professional nurse, six home-based carers, and one social auxiliary worker—providing care to approximately 70–90 patients annually.

• Today, it has grown into a well-established organisation with 64 staff members, offering a comprehensive Hospice Palliative Care Programme alongside a Department of Health-supported Health and Wellness Programme. Each year, the foundation provides care to more than 300 patients through its Hospice Programme and reaches over 30,000 community members through its Wellness initiatives.
• Our standing in, and acceptance by the Bitou community have grown to the extent that we were asked by the Bitou Local Authority to manage the Bitou Covid Response Fund in 2020, which raised a staggering 4 million rand in the space of 6 weeks. Managing this fund enabled us to foster strong collaborative networks with most of the grassroots service delivery organisations in the Bitou sub-district, the local DoH structures, and the local authority structures.
• In keeping with our growth and standing in the community, we have revitalised our premises, which is an old farm house in the heart of one of our poorest communities, and now boast an equipped training room, user-friendly office space, a contemplative garden and a meeting space for support groups.

1. What are the obstacles that you may have had to overcome to achieve these?

Funding has always been a major challenge and the fact that Hospices are not funded for their palliative care work by the Department of Health, is not widely known.  In spite of providing quality services to scores of patients we are still unable to provide market-related salaries or offer fringe benefits such as pension contributions or medical aid schemes, making it particularly challenging to retain professional staff.

We have managed to raise the funds we need to continue our palliative care programme through income generation projects like our Charity shop and medical equipment rentals, local fundraising, donations, and grants. Since 2018, our Charity Shop has contributed around 25% of Hospice costs, thanks to community donations.

2. What do you still want to achieve?

• A five-star hospice accreditation rating. We are currently at a 2-star level hoping to achieve the 3-star level within the next couple of months.
• Build a reserve fund of at least R2,5 million, which is 75% of our current annual budget for our palliative care programme, to ensure our future sustainability.
• Start an employee provident fund.

3. What assistance would assist you in achieving this?

Access to an NPO leadership development programme that would enable future generations of managers to continue our work.

EXTENDING CARE BEYOND BITOU
In response to a need for palliative care services in communities just outside the Bitou sub-district, we have also extended our Hospice Programme to communities in our neighbouring Saartjie Baartman district in the Easten Cape and serve patients as far as Storms River and Tsitsikamma.

1. What are the obstacles that you may have had to overcome to achieve these?

Our 9 professional nursing and psycho-social support staff travel 450 – 500 km/week in our 6 organisational vehicles to reach patients across Bitou and as far as Tsitsikamma in the Eastern Cape.

Four of these vehicles are 10 and 18 years old and are costing a considerable sum to maintain.  With vehicles having to be shared, if just 1 breaks down it increases an already significant burden on the staff to continue providing the excellent care that we aim to provide for all our patients.

This remains a challenge and we would welcome a donation of a well-cared for 2^nd-hand vehicle to relieve this burden.

2. What would you still like to achieve?

We’d like to extend our Hospice Palliative Care services further into the Eastern Cape. The next hospice eastwards from Plett is St Francis Hospice in PE, a distance of 231km, with nothing in between.

3. What assistance would assist you in achieving this?

Access to an NPO leadership development programme that would enable future generations of managers to continue our work.