CATHOLIC Health Australia’s (CHA) call for the right of society’s most vulnerable and marginalised people to have access to palliative care has been supported by Queensland’s peak body in the field.
Palliative Care Queensland (PCQ) also expressed hope that “with the LNP now in power, the State Government will begin to see ‘palliative care’ and the care of dying Queenslanders as a priority”.
CHA, in a submission to a Federal Government Senate Inquiry into palliative care, said a person “living with a disability, mental illness or in prison is just as entitled to receive quality care at the end of their life as any other member of the population”.
PCQ chief executive officer John-Paul Kristensen, in supporting the CHA’s call, said funding to such services had not kept pace with mainstream demand let alone the special needs of the marginalised.
“South-east Queensland has long been a destination of choice for retirees in search of a warmer climate and it now has one of fastest-growing populations of Australians over the age of 65,” he said.
“With referrals to specialist palliative care services increasing by as much as 25 per year in Queensland, it is imperative that the Government provides significant additional funding to the sector, as well as developing a statewide plan for palliative care.
“This plan must incorporate a new and more effective mechanism for funding service delivery.
“Without additional funding to the palliative care sector in Queensland, we cannot ensure that all Queenslanders will have access to the specialist care required to provide dignified and comfortable deaths.”
CHA chief executive officer Martin Laverty said “care for people on the margins of society gets to the heart of what Catholic health and aged care was created to deliver”.
“In rural and remote communities, in indigenous communities, in paediatrics and in culturally and linguistically diverse populations we find people not being appropriately treated towards the end of their lives,” he said.
“These people deserve better.”
CHA’s submission to the Senate Inquiry said among palliative care issues needing to be addressed were:
• the current lack of national standards for people approaching the end of life
• the need for additional investment in specialist palliative care services
• the need for greater integration of palliative care into other areas of health service delivery and
• a general lack of understanding of what constitutes palliative care.
“There is much work to be done, but we believe the roadmap we have outlined goes some way to providing a way forward, rather than simply giving a litany of shortcomings,” Mr Laverty said.
Mr Laverty and Mr Kristensen’s comments came in the lead-up to preparations for next month’s National Palliative Care Week.
A Sunshine Coast community forum, Your Death Your Choice, will be held as the week opens on May 19.
PCQ president Associate Professor Rohan Vora warned that some of the forum presentations would be confronting.
He said this was essential to provide an opportunity to demystify the process of death, as well as discuss the reasons why many Queenslanders still died without having their pain well managed.
“The problem is that funding to palliative care services in Queensland has not kept pace with the growing referral rates, therefore there is much less funding available to us to ensure that people die comfortable, dignified deaths,” he said.
“Are we really surprised that most Queenslanders support physician-assisted suicide when our current system cannot provide adequate care?”
The Federal Government’s Senate Inquiry, which opened last November, will report its findings on September 12.
