The Hospitality of the Palliative Care Team in the Free State is deeply appreciated. I am often overwhelmed by the links between Palliative Care and the spirituality of Hospitality.
To welcome without questions, to care for without reward, to see the patient unconditionally and to be with the patient in the patient’s need has deep echoes of the welcoming of the stranger in our midst and to care for that stranger.
Palliative care is a model not just for patients in need, but a model for life.
Hospice Bloemfontein
The APCC Accreditation Manager (Warren Oxford-Huggett) spent the week before Easter working with palliative care teams and organisations in the Free State.
In particular, time was taken to work closely with Hospice Bloemfontein, helping them with the development of policies and procedures and providing some direction on various questions raised by the team.
Sr. Margriet Kenney and Hanneke Lubbe (Chairperson of the Free State Association) were both participants at the COHSASA survey training earlier in 2025 and worked alongside Warren to better understand some of the processes involved in the accreditation programme.
The time together culminated in the weekly IDT meeting, which Warren participated in.
The value and importance of teamwork in providing quality palliative care were evident during this time, and creative thinking towards problems encountered is to be complimented and highlighted as best practice.
The model of providing palliative care in the Free State is well managed and has wide acceptance with both private patients as well as state patients.
Welkom visit
A second day of the visit was spent in Welkom. Two sites were visited that included a new site that is applying for membership as a Palliative IPU.
This site is under the leadership of a nurse who believes that nothing is impossible and her ‘can do’ attitude is infectious. The site has some development ahead of it, before it begins the Organisational Self-Assessment process, but we look forward in the future to welcoming them alongside other member organisations in the Free State.
A second visit to a well-established Hospice in Welkom was also undertaken where Hanneke and Warren facilitated a meeting between various Palliative Care role players, Hospice, DoH and the potential new Palliative IPU.
Additional interaction is needed here, and support will be provided over the next few weeks to see how this co-operative approach to providing Palliative Care to many who need it can be fostered.
Lesedi Place of Hope
A third day was spent meeting with the board and management team of Lesedi Place of Hope. This Palliative Care centre (a member of APCC) is outside of Bloemfontein and has been hard hit by cuts in funding and some very serious vandalism.
At the moment, no services are being provided here. The board and management team are new and are beginning to make some progress towards compliance with both the APCC Standards for Palliative Healthcare Services as well as legislative requirements as an NPO.
The facilities (despite being vandalised) are a potential point of service delivery for a very needy community. There are two 9-bed wards and the potential to equip and open a 5-bed IPU. The team’s discussion focused on developing alternative sources of income for Lesedi as many of the more traditional sources of income have become very scarce.
University of the Free State and District Hospital
Additional time was spent with the Palliative Care team that operates out of the University of the Free State, where time was spent discussing potential models of delivering Palliative Care. Further time was spent at the District Hospital with a nurse who has been trained in Palliative Care (the CCPN course) and helps Hospice Bloemfontein with both state and private patients. A visit to Sunflower Home has been planned as well.