Auckland hospice thirds number of patients due to funding shortfalls

An Auckland hospice is having to cut the number of people it cares for by almost a third because it's short of funding. Totara Hospice gets $8.8 million from the Government, but that doesn't even cover the wage bill, so it fundraises on top of that. Faced with a shortfall of $3.6 million, Chief Executive Tina McCafferty sounded the alarm bell to try and ward off cuts. But with no solution a month later, the South Auckland community the hospice serves is going to start feeling the impacts. Totara Hospice chief executive Tina McCafferty spoke to Melissa Chan-Green.