Hospice suites set up around the region

There are now seventeen hospitals around the northeast that have one-bedroom hospice suites.

The Northeast Local Health Integration Network says Mattawa and Sturgeon Falls are two of the locations the new beds have been set up.

Officials say the beds are located in communities where there has been limited availability of access to hospice or palliative beds.

They say the new suites give rural patients more access to expert care, along with help to support families and friends during a difficult time.

“We are committed to improving access to high quality, compassionate palliative end-of-life care across Northeastern Ontario,” said Jeremy Stevenson, CEO, North East LHIN. “Hospice suites provide a vital health care service at a difficult time in people’s lives, and with this expansion, more people living in rural Northeastern Ontario communities are benefiting from their supports.”

The new hospice beds will provide an additional 250 patients and families each year with compassionate palliative care.

The suites are located in the following communities:
– Blind River
– Chapleau
– Cochrane
– Elliot Lake
– Espanola
– Hearst
– Hornepayne
– Iroquois Falls
– Kapuskasing
– Little Current
– Matheson
– Mattawa
– Mindemoya
– Smooth Rock Falls
– Sturgeon Falls
– Timiskaming Shores
– Wawa