Completed Research Project

Review of Palliative Care in Western Australia

Investigators: Aoun S, Kristjanson L

Funding: Health Department of WA

Abstract: The Palliative Care Review was undertaken to assess current service provision in the state and to project future needs for services. This review was undertaken by the Palliative Care Advisory Group in response to the Clinical Services Framework released by the Health Reform Implementation Taskforce (HRIT) in 2005. 

The methodology for the review consisted of a broad call for submissions,  interviews with key experts and stakeholders in the community, quantitative data collection and analysis of current service activity and utilisation and projection of service utilisation to 2015. and a literature review of the prevailing models of palliative care services in Australia and overseas.

The report contained 48 recommendations. Overall there was support for the existing model of palliative care in Western Australia that is essentially community-based with multidisciplinary teams linking with hospices and acute care hospitals, the latter operating on a consultative model of care. The first phase of this report has specifically responded to questions about allocation of beds in the metropolitan area and presented a benchmark for all public and private palliative care services in terms of levels of service, role delineation, linkages and resource profile. This benchmark will define and formalise relationships between services for future workforce planning and providing the appropriate mix of service levels, to meet the different needs of palliative care patients in the future.

While acknowledging that many fundamental aspects of palliative care apply to all populations, settings, and types of service provision, the second phase of this report highlighted the different needs of nine special or minority groups: : rural and remote communities, people who require community-based services, people who require medium to long-term support, people with conditions other than cancer, people from indigenous communities and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, older people, children and their families, consumers and carers.

Therefore, this review has provided the palliative care community with a quantitative and qualitative analysis of service provision within a consultative framework, which can be used to plan services that are appropriate to the needs of the population in WA. The proposed Palliative Care Network will play a lead role in implementing the recommendations, coordinating and planning for statewide services to address the palliative care needs for cancer and non-cancer related conditions.