Report shows national palliative care workforce resilient but under strain

• 90% of respondents reported increased demand for specialist palliative care in the previous year, but only 28% said funding met that demand. 

• 69% agreed the palliative care service where they worked had difficulty recruiting staff, and 48% reported difficulty retaining staff in the previous year. 

• Only 33% agreed the palliative care service where they worked had enough staff to ensure high quality care for every patient. 

• Just 16% agreed funding for their palliative care service was sufficient to provide out-of-hours care to all who need it. 

 In primary care settings: 

• 72% of primary care workers agreed that demand for palliative care had increased in the previous year. 

• Only 18% of primary care workers said that the boundaries between their role and the role of specialist palliative care services was clear. 

• 96% of primary care workers agreed that early discussion of palliative care is critical, but only 11% agreed their service was adequately funded to provide palliative care in the previous year. 

In aged care settings: 

• 83% reported that the aged care service where they work provided palliative care to all those who needed it. 

• Only 39% of aged care workers agreed that the service where they work was adequately funded to provide palliative care in the last year. 

• Despite the Aged Care Royal Commission’s vision that palliative care become ‘core business’ in aged care, half of the aged care workers surveyed reported either no change (37%) in the quality of palliative care provided in the past year, or decreased quality (12%). 

Regarding Voluntary Assisted Dying (VAD): 

• Half of respondents asked about VAD (49%) said that the introduction of VAD had actually increased demand for palliative care, while just 2% said it had decreased demand for palliative care.  

Read the full report and short summary here: Australia’s palliative care workforce: Challenges and opportunities - Palliative Care Australia 

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Notes to Editors:

About Palliative Care 

The National Palliative Care Strategy, endorsed by all Australian governments, reflects the World Health Organisation’s definition of palliative care: 

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual. 

About the 2024 National Palliative Care Workforce Survey and report on findings 

The full survey report Australia’s palliative care workforce – Challenges and Opportunities is a 71-page report that describes workforce perceptions of:

• Demand for palliative care
• Adequacy of funding and resources
• Recruitment and retention challenges
• Preparedness to provide a palliative approach in all health and aged care services
• Integration between the various services that provide care to people with life-limiting illnesses
• The introduction of voluntary assisted dying in all states. 

Over half the survey respondents (53% or 738 people) worked in specialist palliative care services, 18% worked in aged care, 9% in primary care, 10% other health care including oncology services, hospital Emergency Departments and Intensive Care Units and 10% were volunteers.