Palliative care must be part of the solution to hospital bed block
Palliative Care Australia
Investment in palliative care
· Every dollar invested in home and community palliative care delivers a 100% return on investment.
· Those who receive home-based palliative care:
- visit an emergency department between two and 12% less in their last year of life (when compared with people with life-limiting illness who don’t receive care at home)
- have a reduction in days spent in hospital in their last year of life, of between 4.5 and 7.5 days, and
- are twice as likely to die at home.
· Provision of palliative care in hospital delivers cost savings to hospital systems of between 9% and 25%.
· Earlier referral to hospital palliative care delivers larger cost savings – up to 71% when palliative care is provided within two days after admission instead of six days after admission.
(Source: KPMG)
Need for palliative care
· Most deaths in Australia are predictable deaths from illness (92% of deaths in 2024) and could benefit from palliative care. (ABS 2025)
· The five leading causes of death in NSW are life-limiting illnesses:
o dementia (5,593)
o ischaemic heart disease (4,928)
o chronic lower respiratory disease (3060)
o cerebrovascular disease (3056)
o lung and associated cancers (2873)
· Need for palliative care is growing rapidly. It is expected to double by 2050 (from a 2020 baseline), due to the population ageing and increasing prevalence of life-limiting illness. (KPMG)
· Nationally, annual growth in the number of people aged 85+ is expected to triple by 2032. Total deaths per year are expected to increase 9.4% in the four years to 2030 and 38% by 2040. (ABS)
· Around 90% of Australians would prefer to receive care at home at the end of their life; most deaths happen in hospitals (estimated 51% of deaths in NSW). (Agar at al; ABS 2019)
Palliative Care Australia (PCA) is calling on governments across Australia to include better access to palliative care in their strategies to reduce hospital bed block and ease pressure on public hospitals.
A NSW Productivity and Equality Commission report released today makes recommendations to help ‘stranded patients’ - older people who can be medically discharged, but who cannot leave hospital due to lack of appropriate aged care services.
There are 1,800 stranded patients in NSW public hospitals alone, a number predicted to rise to 7,000 in 10 years without urgent action.
PCA supports the report’s call for better national data on stranded patients and urges that this work identify people who need palliative care. Any changes to funding and service arrangements must ensure their needs are met, including through timely access to palliative care at home and residential aged care.
Palliative Care Australia CEO Dr Chris Hatherly said that palliative care has an important role to play in keeping people with life-limiting illness out of hospitals, if that’s not where they need or want to be.
“Evidence consistently shows that people receiving high-quality palliative care at home or in aged care are less likely to present to emergency departments, spend fewer days in hospital in their final year of life, and are more likely to receive care and die in the place of their choosing.
"This frees up hospital beds for other members of the community who desperately need them. It can reduce health system costs, and it can improve the quality of those precious last months and weeks of life for people and their families.
"Palliative care is good for patients, good for families and good for the health and aged care systems. It should be part of any serious conversation about reducing avoidable hospital use and easing pressure on hospitals,” Dr Hatherly said.
PCA says reducing hospital pressure requires a whole-of-system response that strengthens care across hospitals, aged care, disability services and community settings. This would prioritise quality care for approximately 450 people with life-limiting illness who die in Australia each day.
ENDS
About us:
Palliative Care Australia is the national peak body for palliative care.
Contact details:
Greg Kimball, PCA Acting National Communications Director, E: [email protected], M: 0402 800 649.
