Two hospices in Miramichi are in a tug-of-war over provincial government funding for end-of-life-care in the community.
Dr. Gerard Losier, a prominent physician and the main backer of Percy’s Place, claims his hospice deserves taxpayer money more than the facility getting it now — a hospice run by his former partners, Hospice Miramichi Inc.
Hospice Miramichi’s Vondy House is being funded by the New Brunswick government despite problems and delays that prevented it from operating at full capacity until recently, according to documents obtained by CBC News through a right-to-information request.
In an interview, Hospice Miramichi board chair Peggy McLean could not say how many patients Vondy House has served and could not confirm whether low-occupancy numbers in provincial documents were accurate.
The dispute has left many residents of the city confused and dismayed.
The city now has one hospice with plenty of patients and no provincial funding, and another that gets government money despite caring for far fewer people.
It wasn’t supposed to get that complicated.
WATCH | ‘A lot of confusion’: Battle over hospices divides Miramichi:
A tale of two feuding hospices in Miramichi
A falling-out has led to two end-of-life care facilities and a fight over government funding.
In 2020, Hospice Miramichi signed a five-year, $542,074-a-year memorandum of understanding with the province to provide hospice care.
That would fund four hospice beds and two palliative respite beds in a facility that Losier would build with money from his family’s charitable foundation.
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