Budget a welcome step towards fairer end-of-life care

Palliative Care Australia has welcomed Australian Government Budget announcements that will improve support for people receiving end-of-life care at home, while calling for further detail to ensure reforms work smoothly for people with life-limiting illness, families, carers and providers. 

PCA particularly welcomes changes to the aged care Support at Home End-of-Life Pathway, which will resolve an issue where Pathway participants who live beyond the original 16-week funding period revert to a standard Support at Home package, despite continuing high care needs. 

PCA Interim CEO Simon Waring said the announcement was an important step in ensuring the aged care system provides compassionate and responsive care. 

“People do not experience dying according to a timetable,” Mr Waring said. 

“This change is a practical and welcome step that should give people, families and providers greater confidence that support will not simply fall away when someone lives longer than expected.” 

PCA National Policy Director Josh Fear said the change addresses a key design issue in the End-of-Life Pathway. 

“This change should give providers more confidence to offer Pathway services, knowing that funding will not decline for people who live beyond the original 16-week period.” 

Mr Fear said PCA would continue to seek further improvements to the Pathway, including more flexibility around entry for people with conditions where prognosis is less certain, and faster access to services and supports commonly needed at end of life. 

PCA also strongly welcomes confirmation in the Budget that personal care provided through the Support at Home Program will be reclassified as a clinical service from October. This will remove out-of-pocket expenses for showering, dressing, continence management at home, assistance to self-administer medications, and attendant care with essential daily activities like mobility and eating. 

“This sensible and practical change will make a real difference for many people with life-limiting illness receiving aged care at home,” Mr Fear said. 

NDIS reforms 

For people under 65, the announced changes to the NDIS are highly significant for many Australians living with a life-limiting illness.  

For PCA, these reforms must deliver coordinated support for people with disability linked to a terminal (life-limiting) illness or risk worsening “bed block” in hospitals.  

Mr Fear said the palliative care sector will seek to work constructively with government on the reforms, while ensuring the needs of people with life-limiting illness remain front and centre.  

“The community must have confidence that this group is not forgotten, with so much focus to date on children with autism and developmental delay. 

“For this group, the key question is whether they can get the practical, day-to-day functional support they need, when they need it – regardless of which system provides it,” Mr Fear said.  

Palliative Care Australia is calling on governments to work with the palliative care sector on the design of alternative systems of functional support for people with disability linked to life-limiting illness who cannot access the NDIS.  

“We want to sit down with government and contribute constructively to that work, including through the Technical Advisory Group the Government will soon establish.” 

“If we don’t get this right, more patients will be stranded in hospital, adding to those who can’t be safely discharged right now,” Mr Fear said. 

Other key Budget announcements 

PCA acknowledges the extraordinary achievements made through two important Commonwealth-State/Territory initiatives which will end by 30 June: the Commonwealth Palliative Care in Aged Care measure and the Palliative Care Services Navigation Pilot, known in South Australia as Palliative Care Connect. 

PCA welcomes additional funding for dementia care supports, including expansion of the Hospital to Aged Care Dementia Support program and new Specialist Dementia Care Program units. 

Ends 

NOTES TO EDITORS

NDIS reform 
More details on PCA’s position on announced changes to the NDIS is available here: NDIS reforms must work for people with terminal illness - Palliative Care Australia 

Commonwealth Palliative Care in Aged Care 
The Budget confirms that Federal funding for the Commonwealth Palliative Care in Aged Care measure will conclude by 30 June. The measure has supported innovative models of palliative and end-of-life care in residential aged care, including palliative care needs rounds and incentives for GPs to provide care in residential aged care. PCA hopes that durable relationships and initiatives will continue with support of residential aged care facilities and state/territory health services, to help deliver on the Aged Care Royal Commission’s vision that palliative care be “core business” in aged care. 

Palliative Care Connect 
The Palliative Care Services Navigation Pilot, known in South Australia as Palliative Care Connect, is also scheduled to conclude by 30 June. PCA says the pilot demonstrated the ongoing need to help people with life-limiting illness, and their families and carers, trying to navigate complex and siloed systems of care. PCA looks forward to hearing how the lessons from the Pilot will be taken up nationally and in other jurisdictions. 

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