Long road ahead for palliative care

There is still much to be done to improve access to palliative care services for those in aged care, according to an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report released last week.

The report reveals patients aged 75 years and over accounted for nearly half of palliative care hospital admissions in 2010-11.

The report revealed there were 51,553 deaths of people in residential aged care in the period 2011‐12, however fewer than 15% of them were assessed as needing palliative care before they died.

Dr Yvonne Luxford, Palliative Care Australia chief executive, asked: “What about the other 85%?”

She claimed there was concern that a large majority of people who would benefit from access to palliative care services “just aren’t getting the care they need”.

“It’s particularly worrying when research indicates the proportion of people dying in aged care is increasing,” Dr Luxford added.

Another area of concern was that there are very few referrals to palliative care for people with diagnoses other than cancer.

The report acknowledged that aged care residents were more likely to have a chronic degenerative disease such as dementia, which could mean some miss out on palliative care simply due to their diagnosis.

“We need to ensure that health professionals are aware that palliative care benefits those with a variety of diseases, and that services are funded to provide this care,” Dr Luxford said.

Dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia, yet represented only 0.4% of palliative care admissions overall.

The report also indicated that about 20% of residents assessed as needing palliative care had a hospital stay, which raises questions about the ability to manage dying residents in residential aged care.

Palliative Care Australia, in conjunction with a number of other partners, will be undertaking a new, innovative Advisory Service project next year, which will support those working in aged and primary care to improve the delivery of palliative care and advance care planning for older Australians receiving aged care services.

“What this report shows us is that we are a long way from making palliative care ‘core’ business for aged care,” Dr Luxford said.

“International research confirms about 70% of those who die would benefit from access to palliative care services, and we are falling very short of this in aged care at the moment.”