By JOLENE OGLE
SUNSHINE Coast Community Hospice Op Shop volunteers have walked off the job and are refusing to return to work until the current board resigns.
Op shop managers Judy Shorland of the Tewantin store and Carol Daly of the Cooroy store shut up shop on Friday 15 July to demand the resignations of the current Sunshine Coast Community Hospice board, responsible for the operation and closure of the local hospice known as Katie Rose.
Ms Shorland and Ms Daly join former volunteers Clytie Glass and Carol Raye to form the Katie Rose Cottage Committee.
Committee spokesperson Ms Raye said the group wanted to call on the community to stand up and support their fight to gain control of the hospice that had been closed due to financial issues since December 2015.
“The hospice board has underestimated the depth of feeling the community has for Katie Rose Hospice,” Ms Raye said.
“We want to re-open the Hospice as Katie Rose Cottage and operate under the original model with a new board.”
Ms Raye said the Katie Rose Cottage committee wanted the current board to step-down so a caretaker board can take control and hold elections for new board members to work towards re-opening the facility under a more volunteer-based model.
Sunshine Coast Community Hospice chairman Dr Frank Lewins said the board would “certainly not be stepping down” and they were considering a range of options to offer palliative care to the community, including building a purpose-built private hospital facility, but Ms Raye said the community didn’t want a private facility.
“The community and volunteers have lost confidence in the board,” she said. “A private facility is not what the Katie Rose hospice is about.”
Dr Lewins said while the hospice was a great service for the community, the model of operation simply wasn’t sustainable.
“The original model of operation was fraught with issues and was unsustainable,” he said.
“There were too many unpredictable factors and the facility needs regular, paid nurses for quality of care.”
Dr Lewins said he wanted to make it clear the board was only considering the option of building a purpose-built private hospital as just one way of offering sustainable palliative care to the community.
“I want to make it clear no formal decision has been made,” he said.
Op shop volunteers have criticised the board, saying they have been kept in the dark about the hospice’s progress, but Dr Lewins said current negotiations and possible partnerships needed to be kept private until something more definite was decided upon.
Dr Lewins confirmed the board is “having discussions with two related health care organisations with the view to longer term palliate care for the community”.
In regards to the criticism of a lack of information, Dr Lewins said the board was involved in confidential negotiations and couldn’t reveal any details at this stage.
“Some people may view our silence as a sign of no action or that we’re up to something, but we have to maintain privacy at this point,” he said.
But Ms Raye said there had been a lack of consultation with the community and was urging locals to withhold their donations to the organisation until the issues were resolved.
“We want the board to heed the community’s and volunteer’s wishes and step-down,” Ms Raye said.
Since closing the doors to the op shops on Friday, the former volunteers have received messages of support with “Stay strong girls” written on the Tewantin store’s front window, plus over 450 signatures and letters of support from local doctors.
Dr Lewins said he believed the op shops will open as soon as possible.
“Given the majority of volunteers are positive about the charity and the board, we are confident we can staff the Cooroy and Tewantin shops,” he said.
