Conclusion
There is limited national data on the need for and receipt of palliative care at a national level. Coverage and identification of palliative care activity in Australia is currently incomplete with a fragmented picture of health service use for people with life-limiting illness.
Linkage studies such as this one provides valuable information on the need for palliative care and receipt of specialist palliative care (across multiple settings). This can be used to inform service planning and delivery of palliative care services. The methods developed for this report also provides a solid basis for the ongoing monitoring of and access to palliative care that can be used to inform future work.
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