New health report to recommend advanced care directives
Ageing Australians would get a say in how and where they die under a huge health reform blueprint being considered by the Federal Government.
Ben Packham, writing in the Melbourne Herald Sun, says the move, aimed at avoiding futile hospital treatment, could slash $250 million a year in unnecessary health costs.
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission has urged Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, to establish a national system to respect the wishes of elderly people, including their right to decline treatment and die where they live.
Its yet-to-be-published report calls for every aged care resident to be asked to sign an “advance care plan” setting out their instructions. It is understood the commission wants the system to be built into the aged care accreditation process, to ensure nursing homes comply.
People would be allowed to die where they want – such as in their own bed – while receiving good palliative care. Advance care plans already have status under common law, but they are infrequently used and often ignored.
In the absence of a nationally co-ordinated system, nursing homes and doctors usually phone an ambulance to ensure they can’t be blamed for an impending death.