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PDF printable version of National Palliative Care Week 2010 - $14 Million Boost (PDF 32 KB)

Joint Release

The Hon Nicola Roxon MP
Minister For Health And Ageing

The Hon Justine Elliot MP
Minister For Ageing

26 May 2010

Minister for Health Nicola Roxon and Minister for Ageing Justine Elliot, today marked National Palliative Care Week 2010 by announcing $14.3 million to fund nine projects for improved palliative care services, research, training and information.

Palliative care is the specialised care of someone suffering from an advanced terminal illness.

Each year more than 20,000 Australians receive specialist palliative care and more than 500,000 patients, carers, family members or friends are affected.

Today’s funding includes:

• $2.2 million to the Queensland University of Technology for continued education and training for the palliative care workforce;

• $1.3 million for Flinders University to continue the rollout of ‘CareSearch’ – a website that provides information to consumers and clinicians;

• $6.6 million to the Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC) for the ongoing rollout of a quality improvement program; and

• $866,000 to Palliative Care Australia for the National Standards Assessment Program.

The Rudd Government has provided more than $55 million since 2007 to the National Palliative Care Program to:

• Promote the use of national quality standards for palliative care;

• Support palliative care patients and their families;

• Increase the palliative care knowledge and skills of the health workforce; and

• Improve access to palliative care medicines for people living in the community.

As part of the $64 billion in healthcare funding for states and territories agreed by COAG in November 2008, $500 million has been allocated to increase subacute care services by 20 per cent by 2012, including the provision of additional palliative care services.

Projects opened or being introduced from the Rudd Government’s subacute care funding includes:

• More than $230,000 to develop at home and respite care packages for palliative care patients in South Australia;

• $33 million in New South Wales to expand services including six new palliative care beds at Canterbury Hospital;

• 24 bed ward for subacute care patients at Austin Health in Victoria;

• Two new palliative care medical registrar positions in Western Australia; and

• $1.9 million to improve clinical palliative care in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Government will build on this investment by providing an additional $1.6 billion for more than 1,300 new subacute care beds, including an expansion of palliative care services, by 2013-14 as part of the National Health and Hospitals Network.

The Rudd Government is funding Palliative Care Australia (PCA) to help support National Palliative Care Week 2010.

For all media inquiries please contact:
Minister Roxon’s Office – 6277 7220
Minister Elliot’s Office – 6277 7280

Projects:

Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) has previously been funded for the development and national collection of data on palliative care performance indicators. Continued funding would allow the Australian Government to continue to collect valuable data and develop the evidence-base for future palliative care activity.

Funding of up to $144,000 (GST exclusive) will be provided for AIHW to continue for an additional 12 months.

Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC)

PaCCSC is a collaborative research organisation consisting of ten sites around Australia that assesses the feasibility of clinical drug trials for medicines used in palliative care. This research may support the registration of a number of medicines used in palliative care on the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods and subsequently support the listing of these medicines on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (‘PBS’)

Funding of up to $2,205,000 (GST exclusive) will be provided for PaCCSC to continue conducting trials for an additional 12 months.

National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)

The Palliative Care Research Program is a departmentally funded National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) program for priority-driven research grants, smaller development grants, PHD Scholarships and postdoctoral fellowships.

Potential grant recipients are health care professions including nurses, allied health professionals, Indigenous health workers, medical practitioners, and clinical researchers who wish to undertake a research project specifically in the field of palliative care.

Funding of up to $90,000 (GST exclusive) will be available for NHMRC to offer additional research grants for a 12 month period. Continued funding will enable sustained support for research and quality improvement for palliative care services.

Program of Experience in the Palliative Approach (PEPA)

PEPA’s overall objective is to enhance the capacity of all health professionals in a primary care setting to deliver a palliative care approach through their participation in either clinical placements in specialist palliative care services or interactive workshops.

Funding of up to $1,872,000 (GST exclusive) will be provided to Queensland University of Technology, who manage this program, to enable continued education, training and support for the palliative care workforce.

Palliative Care Curriculum for Undergraduates (PCC4U)

PCC4U involves the national roll out of PCC4U resources to all universities which offer medical, nursing, allied health undergraduate training.

The PCC4U Project aims to:

Promote the inclusion in all health care training of the role of palliative care and its principles and practice in the care of dying people; and Support the inclusion of palliative care education as an integral part of all medical, nursing and allied health undergraduate training and ongoing professional development.

Continued funding of up to $367,000 (GST exclusive) will be provided to Queensland University of Technology, who manage this program, to enable continued education, training and support for the palliative care workforce.

Respecting Patient Choices Project (RPC)

RPC is a model of advance care planning that aims to ensure patients’ choices about their end of life care are respected.

The overall objective of RPC is to assist patients across Australia to choose their end of life care and assist them to inform their families, carers and health professionals of the choices that they have made.

Continued funding of up to $900,000 (GST exclusive) will enable continued support for patients, families and carers in the community.

National Standards Assessment Program (NSAP)

NSAP, which is managed by Palliative Care Australia, develops and provides tools and processes that measure, evaluate and review quality activities enabling specialist palliative care services to assess their care provision and assists in their accreditation and continuous improvement processes.

Continued funding up to $866,000 (GST exclusive) is being provided to enable the sustained rollout of this quality improvement program in 2010-11.

CareSearch – the Palliative Care Knowledge Network

CareSearch is an interactive website that provides information resources for researchers and palliative care specialists, along with information for patients and their families, carers, general practitioners, other health care professionals and the general public.

The website includes a searchable database of palliative care literature and online forums that allow groups to share research, reports and information.

Continued funding up to $1,300,000 (GST exclusive) will enable the sustained rollout of this important resource.

Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration (PCOC)

PCOC has developed a national network for palliative care services that facilitates benchmarking through the collection of information and the reporting of outcomes for continuous quality improvement.

It is currently estimated that 80% of Australia’s palliative care services have begun to use PCOC and report data.

Funding of up to $6,600,000 (GST exclusive) will be provided for PCOC to continue until 2012-13. Continued funding would enable the sustained rollout of this benchmarking and quality improvement program.