End-of-life care

End-of-life care

 

All people deserve the dignity and comfort of high-quality health care as they age and reach the end of their lives. Regional, rural and remote patients must receive equitable access to palliative care and voluntary assisted dying (VAD) services. Treatments provided to First Nations Queenslanders must also be culturally safe and enable them to die with dignity on country. AMA Queensland has continued to advocate for increased investment in end-of-life care, including through our recent Advocacy Priorities 2024-26 and pre-Budget submissions.  

 


 
Advocacy Priorities Extract from Advocacy Priorities 2024-26

3.3. Aged and end-of-life care 
It is clear that investment in aged and end-of-life care is urgently needed. All people deserve the dignity and comfort of high-quality health services as they age and reach the end of their lives.

Culturally appropriate services must also be provided to First Nations Queenslanders as a priority given the inequity of access for these communities relative to non-Indigenous Queenslanders. This means palliative and end-of-life care for First Nations patients must not only be culturally safe but enable community members to die with dignity on country.

As stated, whilst the $171 million investment in palliative care services in the 2022-23 Queensland Budget was welcome, it is unclear what programs have been supported and how much remaining funding is yet to be allocated. As a priority, AMA Queensland will advocate for all unallocated funds to be reinvested in end-of-life care with a focus on expanding service provision in First Nations communities.

We will also continue to advocate for increased investment in aged care, particularly to support general practitioners and other doctors who continue to dedicate themselves to these patients despite woefully inadequate funding by both the Queensland and Australian Governments. Likewise, we will reiterate our calls for increased palliative care funding and policy reforms including:

  • an increase in the palliative care eligibility access period for all services from three months to 12 months
  • an independent review of the rural and remote community-based palliative care services awarded by tender under the Palliative and End-of-Life Care Strategy in May 2022
  • permanent funding of the Specialist Palliative Care in Aged Care (SPACE) Project
  • expansion of the Medical Aids Subsidy Scheme (MASS) to include the last 12 months of life (not six months)
  • removal of the requirement for a palliative care specialist to confirm prognoses to improve access to MASS and
  • more support and investment in our community-based workforce to reduce demand on overburdened public hospital specialist palliative care services.

End-of-life care must also include supply of Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD) services that meet demand. Currently, both private and public services are reporting a significant shortfall in services, particularly for regional, rural and remote and First Nations communities.

Medical practitioners and health services need VADspecific funding, particularly for community-based services, longer GP consultations and for practitioners to travel to outer-area patients. VAD must be given its own, separate funding stream that does not reduce that available for other end-of-life care services.
 

 
Health practitioners must also be supported to provide end-of-life care. That is why we have partnered with other health agencies to call for increased MBS funding for VAD and the amendment of legislation prohibiting equitable access to telehealth services. 

 

Resources 

Clinicians interested in end-of-life care can find more information about training requirements, including for VAD, via the following links: