I have a high regard for the hospice which took up its service in Gdańsk and radiates onto other cities and towns. It emerged from the shared concern of patients and the doctors standing by their beds for an appropriate place and conditions for patients reaching the end of their lives. This concern is expressed in the joint caring for and keeping vigil over a patient at home, in the heartfelt and selfless “offering of oneself”
John Paul II during the 3rd pilgrimage to Poland, 1987
The Hospice started to operate in autumn 1983. Father E. Dutkiewicz SAC Hospice runs the Hospice Home for Adults and Children, the Home Hospice for Adults, the Home Hospice for Children, the Hospice Perinatal Care and the Palliative Care Outpatient Clinic. Care is provided to some 1000 patients, adults and children, each year. There are also support groups for adults and children in bereavement. The hospice employs approx. 100 people under various forms of employment and there is a large group of cooperating volunteers supervised by the voluntary service coordinator. Over 100 trained workers support the medical staff in stationary and home care, in administrative work, charity tasks and training and in the maintenance of the center’s website:
