The ACT Government says a new strategy is needed to cope with a dramatic increase in the number of Canberrans suffering from terminal diseases predicted for the next decade.
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Chief Minister and Health Minister Katy Gallagher says she wants to see more palliative care beds throughout the city, an end to the reliance on Calvary Healthcare for the care of dying patients and more support for those wishing to end their days in their own homes.
Ms Gallagher told The Canberra Times yesterday that work had already began on a strategy for palliative care in the territory for the next several years.
She made her comments in response to a call from the ACT Greens, who say the number of terminal patients is set to double by 2020 but the Government's current palliative care strategy is due to expire this year.
The Greens quoted figures from the Little Company of Mary, operators of Calvary Hospital, indicating that in nine years health authorities would be dealing with up to 480 terminal patients at any given time. The latest available figures, from 2009, show about 700 palliative care ''separations'' that year with the number growing annually by about 15 per cent.
''As the need for palliative care services continues to grow, we're particularly interested in home-based palliative care because all the evidence is that if people had a choice about where they died, then the majority would choose to die at home,'' Ms Gallagher said.
But Greens MLA Amanda Bresnan said interest in the issue of palliative care had dropped away since the collapse last year of a proposed sale of Clare Holland House by the ACT Government to The Little Company of Mary. She will move a motion in the Legislative Assembly tomorrow calling for the ACT Government to commission an independent review of palliative care services, to be conducted by an interstate expert.
The Greens health spokeswoman said the Government's ACT Palliative Care Strategy 2007-2011 is about to come to an end. ''During the debate about the sale of Clare Holland House important questions were raised about the future of palliative care services more generally.
''The Government should take this time provided between strategies to ensure those issues are addressed,'' Ms Bresnan said yesterday.
She said that there were several big issues confronting the sector.
''The independent review and next palliative care strategy will need to address the increasing demand for services and Canberra's ageing population,'' she said. ''We need to look at meeting growing palliative care demand outside a hospice setting.
''A growing number of terminally ill people would prefer to be cared for in their homes, but there aren't enough resources to support carers.''
Figures from the Palliative Care Society show that only about 16 per cent of terminally ill patients die at home, with about 20 per cent dying in hospices, about 10 per cent in nursing homes and the rest in hospitals. ''There is also support in the community for Canberra having a second hospice,'' MsBresnan said.