Jack & Jill nurses welcome ‘Report on End of Life and Palliative Care in Ireland’ published today, particularly in relation to automatic medical cards & extension of Jack & Jill service to children up to the age of 6 (current age range for Jack & Jill is birth to 4 years) The Jack & Jill Children’s Foundation welcomes the ‘Report on End of Life and Palliative Care in Ireland’ and in particular the specific and practical recommendations in relation to end of life care for children who are brought home from hospital to die; a nationwide service that Jack & Jill nurses have been providing for the last 17 years, with less than 20% funding from the State. Jack & Jill specialist children’s nurses Caroline Thomas and Sinead Moran, who had presented to and been interviewed by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children in November 2013, attended the launch of the report today in Leinster House and thanked the authors for listening. Welcoming the report Jack & Jill specialist children’s nurse Sinead Moran said: “The development of a National Strategy on Palliative Care, End of Life and Bereavement is long overdue and we are delighted to see it top of the recommendations in this report. However, we can’t have a strategy without the funding to make it happen and this report must not be allowed to gather dust. “Recommendation 31 which states that ‘Consideration should be given to increasing State funding to the Jack & Jill Foundation to enable the expansion of its end of life care service to support children up to the age of 6’ recognises the hands on, 24/7, 365 days a year service we have been providing for many years, and the urgent need to extend this to children up to the age of 6 which will save money for the State. What is unique about our model is that we don’t have a waiting list; nursing can be provided in the home within 24 hours, once the decision by the parents is made to take their child home for end of life care; we cover 26 counties and are one of the only out of hours paediatric services providing hands on care in the home; we provide and fund 80 hours home nursing care per month for the children and their families. “We would really like to see Recommendation 27 regarding the automatic sanctioning of medical cards for children who require palliative or end of life care; without their being subject to a renewal process implemented as soon as possible and making the current renewal process easier via covering letter for a child’s GP or consultant makes a lot of sense and will save time, stress and money. For parents, to know that they can take their child home and that medical card is automatically sanctioned to cover whatever services they need, will lessen stress and anxiety on the financial side big time. Furthermore, Recommendation 29 regarding ‘An alternative procedure for the issuing of medical cards to infants who have not been issued with a PPS number’ would make a huge difference for parents as it can take weeks to get a PPS number – precious time families should be enjoying with their child. “We wholeheartedly agree with Senator Jillian van Turnhout’s observation that ‘consent, choice and control’ should be the tenets of good end of life care. The only difference for these precious children with no voice and a short journey is that their consent must come via their parents and these parents must be given the choice to take their child home for whatever short time they have and be given all the support they need to do so. The Jack & Jill model of care is about empowering parents to care for their child whether it be at home, hospital or hospice.”
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 18:56:07 +0000
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