$14 million boost to mark National Palliative Care Week

Posted May 27th 2010

by DPS

Minister for Health, Nicola Roxon, and Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, have marked National Palliative Care Week 2010 by announcing $14.3 million to fund nine projects for improved palliative care services, research, training and information.

The funding includes:

$2.2 million to the Queensland University of Technology for continued education and training for the palliative care workforce;
$1.3 million for Flinders University to continue the rollout of ‘CareSearch’ – a website that provides information to consumers and clinicians;
$6.6 million to the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) for the ongoing rollout of a quality improvement program; and
$866,000 to Palliative Care Australia for the National Standards Assessment Program.

The Rudd Government has provided more than $55 million since 2007 to the National Palliative Care Program to:

Promote the use of national quality standards for palliative care;
Support palliative care patients and their families;
Increase the palliative care knowledge and skills of the health workforce; and
Improve access to palliative care medicines for people living in the community.

As part of the $64 billion in healthcare funding for states and territories agreed by COAG in November 2008, $500 million has been allocated to increase subacute care services by 20% by 2012, including the provision of additional palliative care services.

Projects opened or being introduced from the Rudd Government’s subacute care funding includes:

More than $230,000 to develop at home and respite care packages for palliative care patients in South Australia;
$33 million in New South Wales to expand services including six new palliative care beds at Canterbury Hospital;
24 bed ward for subacute care patients at Austin Health in Victoria;
Two new palliative care medical registrar positions in Western Australia; and
$1.9 million to improve clinical palliative care in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Government will build on this investment by providing an additional $1.6 billion for more than 1,300 new subacute care beds, including an expansion of palliative care services, by 2013-14 as part of the National Health and Hospitals Network.

The Rudd Government is funding Palliative Care Australia (PCA) to help support National Palliative Care Week 2010.