National data released by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) during National Palliative Care Week shows both rapidly increasing demand for palliative care and encouraging improvements in quality outcomes across Australia.
The AIHW has released two new publications, Palliative Care Services in Australia and the National Palliative Care Measures Report.
The reports provide the latest national picture of palliative care delivery, workforce growth, prescribing trends, investment, and quality outcomes.
The data shows in-patient palliative care (or palliative care in hospital) is growing much faster than all hospital activity. This reflects increasing need for palliative care in communities Australia-wide.
Between 2015-16 and 2023-24 palliative care hospitalisations increased by 46%, and palliative care related hospitalisations grew at an annual rate of 4.9%, compared with 2.3% for hospitalisations overall.
The reports also show continued growth in specialist palliative care services and workforce capacity:
the number of palliative medicine specialist services increased from 123,400 to 149,700 between 2018-19 and 2024-25
15,900 people received specialist palliative care in 2024-25
the specialist palliative care nursing and medical workforce increased from 13.2 to 14.4 FTE per 100,000 people.
At the same time, the reports highlight ongoing inequities in access to care.
People living in major cities were nearly five times more likely to receive palliative medicine consultations or case conferencing than people living in remote or very remote areas.
The National Palliative Care Measures Report also demonstrates encouraging improvements in quality and timeliness of care:
early access to specialist palliative care improved from 20% to 20.9%
unstable palliative care phases resolved within three days increased from 76.1% to 82.2%
potentially non-beneficial treatments at end-of-life decreased from 8.9% to 8.3%
potentially preventable hospitalisations in the last three months of life fell from 12.9% to 11.9%.
Palliative Care Australia welcomes the continued development of national palliative care data and quality measures.
However, significant data gaps remain, including robust national information on:
access to palliative care beyond specialist palliative care services, such as in primary care
cultural safety and inclusiveness
uptake of advance care planning
whether people are able to die in their preferred place
investment in palliative care services.
Palliative Care Australia looks forward to continued collaboration between governments, the AIHW and research organisations to strengthen national palliative care data and improve equitable access to high-quality palliative care for all Australians.
Reports
Palliative Care Services in Australia report available here.
Palliative-care-services-in-Australia
National Palliative Care Measures report available here.
National-palliative-care-measures
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