More funding for in-home palliative care services is urgently needed as the number of Australians requiring palliative care increases.
An ageing population, coupled with the start of the pandemic meant demand for in-home palliative care had increased, according to Karuna Hospice Services CEO, Tracey Porst.
Karuna Hospice Services alone has experienced a steady demand for services since Covid began. Porst believes adequately funded community-based palliative care services would free up hospital beds and give more terminally ill Queenslanders the option to die at home.
“Obviously it was difficult for families to visit their loved one in hospital during the lockdown, so opting for an in-home service made sense. With this newest wave of Covid I believe we’ll see more families choosing services such as ours.”
There is substantial research to show people who received in-home palliative care had less hospitalisations and fewer visits to emergency departments. About 70 percent of Australians say they would prefer to die at home, but only about 15 percent are able to. The number of people being admitted to hospital for palliative or other end of life care has been steadily on the increase since 2015 as the latest figures show it grew by a third between 2015 and 2020. “At Karuna we believe our services enable capacity within the hospital and health system. Our average period of service is 106 days, so if for much of that time we can help keep people out of hospital that makes a big difference to their life, the lives of their friends and family and also the hospital system.”
KPMG figures show the cost of death in Australia is $7.8 billion per year, with more than half of that, $4 billion, being made up of hospital costs.
The latest data from Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows that 97percent (1.1 million people) used at least one of the four health services – hospital admissions, ED presentations, MBS services and prescriptions supplied under the PBS/RPBS – in their last year of life.
It found 8 percent of health service costs were spent on people in their last year of life with on average $24,000 spent on the four types of health services combined for a person in their last year of life. More in-home palliative care would reduce the hospitalisation costs of dying significantly.
“But it’s not actually about saving money,” she said. “It’s about improving the experience of those receiving palliative care and also freeing up hospital beds for others.”
Karuna provides its qualified nursing staff free of charge.
