Palliative care services in Australia

Primary reason for hospitalisation

In 2022–23 (Figure 3):

• Cancer was the most common principal diagnosis recorded for palliative care-related hospitalisations (40%) – about 1 in 2 (48%) for primary palliative care hospitalisations and almost 1 in 3 (30%) for other palliative care hospitalisations. 
• Secondary site cancer (cancer of an unknown or ill-defined primary site) was the most frequently recorded cancer (9.4% and 9.3% for primary palliative care and other palliative care hospitalisations, respectively), followed by lung cancer (7.4% and 3.6% for primary palliative care and other palliative care hospitalisations, respectively).
• Most frequently recorded principal diagnosis other than cancer was cerebrovascular disease (4.5%) and septicaemia (3.6%) for primary palliative care hospitalisations, and influenza and pneumonia (5.3%) and other ill-defined causes (4.9%) for other palliative care hospitalisations. 

Average length of stay

In 2022–23 (Figure 3):

• The average length of stay for palliative care-related overnight hospitalisations (hospitalisations that exclude same-day stays) was almost twice as long as all overnight hospitalisations (11 days vs 5.7 days) – 9.3 days for primary palliative care hospitalisations and 12 days for other palliative care hospitalisations. 
• Patients spent on average longer in private hospitals (13 days) than in public hospitals (10 days) for overnight palliative care-related hospitalisations. In contrast, the average length of stay for overnight hospitalisations for all reasons in public hospitals (6.0 days) was slightly longer than in private hospitals (5.1 days).

Status at discharge

In 2022–23 (Figure 3): 

• Almost 3 in 5 (57% or 57,600) palliative care-related hospitalisations ended with the patient dying in hospital – 69% for primary palliative care hospitalisations and 43% for other palliative care hospitalisations. 
• The next most common status at discharge was to usual residence (25%) – 21% for primary palliative care hospitalisations and 29% for other palliative care hospitalisations.

In 2022–23, of the 89,200 patients who died in hospitals (Table 8):

• about 2 in 3 (65%, or 57,600) received palliative care during their final hospitalisation – 42% for primary palliative care and 23% for other palliative care
• the proportion of patients receiving palliative care during the last hospitalisation was higher in patients with a principal diagnosis of cancer than those with a non-cancer diagnosis (87% and 56%, respectively).

Figure 3: Characteristics of palliative care-related hospitalisations, 2022–23