EoL – Towards quality care at the end of life
Publication, EoL – Towards quality care at the end of life, presents views from leaders across the health sector on how the system can work better for people at the end of life (EoL), and their families, carers and communities.
“While great advances have been made in the delivery of quality specialist palliative care, in general, health and other care services do not always perform well for people who are dying. Our existing models of care and resourcing do not always match the needs of many living with a terminal condition, creating unnecessary stress and pain at this crucial time,” said Professor Margaret O’Connor, president of Palliative Care Australia.
“We need to get it right to ensure people are not suffering from preventable pain. We need to get it right to ensure people receive the physical, social, emotional, spiritual and cultural care they need, when they need it”.
EoL creates a platform for policy dialogue to take this issue forward, to ensure that as responsibility for end of life care is increasingly integrated through the whole of health, it is supported by systems and resources that make the delivery of quality care a reality for all.
Contributors discuss a number of policy avenues for better access to pain control including:
- consumer education
- expanding health professional knowledge in prescribing pain medications
- clear referral pathways to and from specialist palliative care expertise
- resourced system to care for people in their setting of choice, nationally recognised competencies in caring for people at the end of life
- building workforce capacity across primary care, hospitals, and aged care, and a system to support advance care planning to ensure people receive the care they want at the end of life.
Contributors include:
- Rob Knowles, commissioner, National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission
- Prue Power, executive director, Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association
- David Butt, chief executive officer, Australian General Practice Network
- Ged Kearney, federal secretary, Australian Nursing Federation
- Professor Stephen Leeder, director Menzies Centre for Health Policy
EoL is available at http://www.palliativecare.org.au
