Hospice service crucial for Stratford

Te Kahu Pairuri Hospice Taranaki a key part of the Stratford community

A grant from the Taranaki Electricity Trust has allowed the Te Kahu Pairuri Hospice Taranaki to provide a crucial service for the Stratford community. The grant allows Hospice to have an office in Stratford - so important in connecting with the community - and to purchase overlay mattresses.

"These overlays and protective covers allow us to quickly deploy a new form of pressure reducing mattress to a community care patient’s home," said Paul Lamb, CEO of Hospice. "They are designed to be used on a conventional bed so likely used earlier in a patient’s illness trajectory where for a degree of ‘normalcy’ they still want to sleep in their own bed but need assistance to do so."

"It also allows us to use our full electric beds with air mattresses to those patients most benefiting from the features of such a bed. Previously this type of bed went with almost community referral so careful use of the new mattress overlays and covers mean we can care for more patients at one time."