Palliative care hospitalisations rising in Australia

Hospitalisations for palliative care are growing faster than all hospitalisations, according to a report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW).

Between 2010–11 and 2014–15, palliative care-related hospitalisations rose by about 19%, according to the institute. This is greater than the 15% increase recorded for hospitalisations for all reasons over the same period.

The figures also show that, before their death, a greater proportion of people are accessing palliative care services in hospital.

“Although it’s difficult to be definitive about the reasons for this rise, Australia’s growing and ageing population — paired with a rise in chronic and incurable illnesses — has broadened the type of patients requiring palliative care,” said AIHW spokesperson Matthew James.

In 2014–15, about 155,600 people died in Australia, almost half of whom died as an admitted patient in hospital. “Of these,” said James, “about 46% had been a palliative care patient during their final hospitalisation, up from 37% in 2010–11.”

More than half (54%) of all palliative care-related hospitalisations in 2014–15 ended with the patient’s death. Just over half were for people aged 75 and over, and a similar proportion involved cancer as the main diagnosis.

The report was released as part of National Palliative Care Week (21–28 May) and seeks to underline the importance of talking to those closest to you about your end-of-life care wishes. Further information can be found at www.aihw.gov.au/palliative-care/.

“Today’s report shows us that more people are admitted to hospital requiring palliative care services, but we don’t know how many of these people would’ve preferred to have received palliative care services elsewhere,” said James.

This news item is based on Australian Institute of Health and Welfare material distributed under CC BY 3.0 AU

Image credit: ©stock.adobe.com/au/nielskliim