Palliative care is not an optional extra
The federal government will fund all initiatives under the National Palliative Care Program for a further six months, but Palliative Care Australia (PCA) remains concerned over the future of these education programs.
Dr Yvonne Luxford, Palliative Care Australia chief executive, says some Budget announcements are concerning at a time when internationally palliative care is being recognised as vital.
Dr Yvonne Luxford, PCA chief executive, says the extension of additional funding is welcome, but with the news that the government is seeking significant efficiencies in all of the flexible funding streams, the organisation will quickly need information about the process to achieve these cuts.
Her concerns also lie with the use of Activity Based Funding (ABF) as a method to fund health services delivered in hospitals, which will remain uncertain after 2016.
“Palliative care and other subacute services are engaging in a huge amount of work to adopt an ABF model. Will this be wasted effort?” Dr Luxford says.
“At a time when internationally palliative care is being recognised as a vital component of health systems and not an optional extra, some of the announcements in this Budget are concerning,” Dr Luxford says.
There are, however, a number of initiatives in the Budget that are welcome and provide some opportunities to improve care for dying Australians, their carers and families.
“PCA has long advocated for advance care plans to be included in the Personally Controlled Electronic Health Record (PCEHR) and the continued support for the PCEHR will make this a reality,” Dr Luxford says.
Additionally, PCA hopes the huge increase in dementia research funding goes some way to improve end of life care for people with dementia and their carers, and that the nursing and allied health scholarships help improve palliative care in rural and remote areas.
The news that there will be a White Paper to consider developing a new health productivity and performance commission also provides scope for important work on palliative care to continue.
“It would be our hope that a new agency would build on the fantastic work that has been done by agencies, such as the Australian Commission on Quality and Safety in Healthcare, which has developed an end of life care consensus statement, along with the Australian Institute for Health and Welfare and the Independent Hospital Pricing Authority.”
