Fraser Health asks to meet with hospice over its ban on assisted dying
Fraser Health is seeking a meeting with the newly elected Delta Hospice Society board over its decision to not provide assisted dying at its Ladner facility.
In a prepared statement, Fraser Health said it was seeking a meeting to “discuss our concerns” with the board’s decision.
On Monday, the newly appointed hospice society president, Angelina Ireland, told staff and volunteers at its Irene Thomas Hospice that the board had repealed a recent decision by the old board to allow medical assistance in death (MAID) at the facility.
This goes against Fraser Health policy that anyone staying in one of its non-faith-based hospice facilities has the right to access MAID. Fraser Health funds 10 hospices — that includes seven of its own facilities and three under contract, including Irene Thomas.
The health authority provides $1.3 million a year to the society to help operate the 10-bed Irene Thomas Hospice, and owns the hospice building on Clarence Taylor Crescent.
The society has had issues with allowing MAID at the hospice since it became legal in 2016. While Fraser Health states that anyone in its nonfaith-based hospice must have access to MAID, the hospice has refused to abide.
In September, the executive director — who founded the society and was opposed to MAID — lost her job and soon after the board voted in favour of MAID. It’s not known whether any patients accessed the service between then and when the new board got elected and the decision was repealed.
Ireland didn’t respond to Postmedia News’s request for comment.