The Hospice was established to provide quality care and support
to the terminally ill. The need for this became acute in the
early 1990's when so many people became infected with HIV/AIDS.
Patients were being discharged from the government hospitals
because there wasn't anything more that could be done for them
and to make room for acute cases.
Patients were leaving the hospitals in a weak state and some
died on the roadside or the bus station.
Staff of the Hospice during a visit of Cardinal
Medardo Mazombwe
Our Lady’s Hospice is a registered charity under the Companies
Act of Zambia. It has the support of the Ministry of Health and
comes under the patronage of his Grace the Archbishop of
Lusaka. Four catholic religious orders based in Lusaka are
involved in the project (Franciscan
Missionaries of the Divine Motherhood,
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Dominican Sisters and
St Patrick’s Missionary Society) together with medical
experts from University Teaching Hospital (UTH).
Our Lady’s Hospice are serves the community in Kalingalinga and
surrounding areas with an average of 40 in-patients and 1,200
out-patients per month. With the advent of Anti-retroviral
treatment (ART) for HIV/AIDS, the role of the Hospice has
changed from only end-of-life care to offering a holistic
approach to palliative care that includes offering ART. However,
the Hospice still caters for patients at the end-of-life stage
of their illness and we currently register between 16-22 deaths
per month. We believe that these people die well in peace, pain
free and with dignity that is at the centre of the palliative
care approach to care.
Sr. Kay,
Hospice Administrator (far right)
with Matron (far left)
on a visit by First President
Kenneth Kaunda
Palliative Care
is defined as “An approach that improves the quality of life of
patients and their
families
facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness,
through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early
identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain
and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.” WHO
2002
