Palliative care aims to prevent and relieve suffering and improve the quality of life of people (adults, children and their families) facing problems associated with life-limiting illness. Palliative care can be delivered by a wide range of health and community providers, is not limited to any specific condition, can be delivered at any stage of illness, and can accompany curative treatments. With an ageing and growing population, it is projected that the demand for palliative care and end-of-life care will rise substantially.
Palliative care services in Australia has been published as a web only report since 2015. This report is regularly updated to include the latest data from a range of sources.
Findings from this report:
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13,900 people received 66,300 Medicare-subsidised palliative medicine attendance and case conference services in 2022–23
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There was a 37% increase in palliative care-related hospitalisations between 2015–16 and 2022–23
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Pain relief medications accounted for 4 in 5 (78%) of the 1.3 million palliative care-related prescriptions in 2022–23
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There were 882,000 episode-level non-admitted patient service events for palliative care in 2022–23