National palliative care measures

This measure is about ensuring that people with life-limiting illnesses receive palliative care in a timely manner. Data are not currently available on all palliative care delivered in Australia, so this measure focuses on those people who received "specialist” palliative care. However, many people with a life-limiting illness can be well managed by primary and community care providers and may not require specialist palliative care services.

Note, data for this measure are not available for Western Australia and Northern Territory. This means the counts presented here underestimate national totals and the influence on proportions is unknown.

The desired outcome is that more people with life-limiting illnesses receive timely palliative care, meaning the measure will increase.

Objective area: Continuous   Outcome area: Timely care

Trends

In 2018, among those whose death was registered in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, or the Australian Capital Territory and who received specialist palliative care in their last year of life, 20.0% first received it at least 3 months before they died. This increased to 20.9% in 2020 (Figure 4.2.1).

Figure 4.2.1: Proportion of people who first received specialist palliative care at least 3 months before death, 2018-2020.

Characteristics

Figure 4.2.2 presents the proportion of people who received specialist palliative care in the last year of life with first receipt at least 3 months before death. This proportion varied by a range of characteristics:

• The highest proportion was in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, where 1 in 4 (25.3% and 24.9% respectively) people who received specialist palliative care first received it at least 3 months before they died. Differences between states and territories should be interpreted with caution as modes of service delivery, definitions, and data recording practices differ across states and territories.
• The proportion decreased as remoteness increased – Major Cities had the highest proportion (22.5%) and Remote and Very Remote (combined) had the lowest proportion (15.6%). Note, Western Australia and Northern Territory are not included in these data so disaggregation by remoteness area should be interpreted with caution (see Data sources for more information).
• A slightly smaller proportion of males (20.7%) who received specialist palliative care, first received it at least 3 months before they died, compared with females (21.1%).
• The proportion decreased as age increased – almost half (47.7%) of all children (0–14 years) who received specialist palliative care first received it at least 3 months before they died, compared with 1 in 7 (14.9%) people aged 85 and over.
• The proportion decreased as disadvantage increased – 25.8% of people who lived in the highest socioeconomic areas and received specialist palliative care, first received it at least 3 months before death, compared with 18.9% of people living in the lowest (and 17.9% in the second lowest) socioeconomic areas.
• The proportion varied considerably by cause of death - the highest proportion was among people with neurodegenerative diseases (31.6%) and the lowest proportion was for people with cerebrovascular diseases including stroke (4.9%).

Figure 4.2.2: Proportion of people who first received specialist palliative care at least 3 months before death, by selected characteristics, 2020.