Palliative Care Australia (PCA) has welcomed yesterday's release of the Inspector-General of Aged Care's (IGAC) 2025 progress report on implementation of the recommendations of the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
Palliative Care Australia CEO Camilla Rowland said although the report includes uncomfortable findings about the extent to which aged care reforms have fallen short of the Royal Commission's vision, it has been encouraging to see a number of PCA's concerns have been acknowledged in the report.
"Palliative Care Australia strongly agrees with the Inspector-General of Aged Care that the 16-week time limit on people receiving care through the End-of-Life Pathway risks people losing access to care at the very time they need it most.
"We also support the Inspector-General of Aged Care's commentary that access to palliative care should be based on need, not how long someone is expected to live. The prognosis-based approach has not succeeded as hoped in residential aged care and we should not expect it to succeed in our new system of aged care at home," Ms Rowland said.
"We welcome the Inspector-General's recommendation that the current prognosis-based criteria for eligibility to palliative care specific aged care pathways be subject to an independent evaluation."
Ms Rowland said that despite these concerns, the IGAC rightly highlighted positive elements of the new Aged Care Act, which will become operational on 1 November 2025. These include a right to equitable access to palliative care in the Statement of Rights, new Quality Standards which put specific requirements on aged care services regarding palliative care and end-of-life care, and an expectation that all aged care services will undertake advance care planning.
"The report echoes Palliative Care Australia's view that there is still significant work ahead to make palliative care 'core business' in aged care," Ms Rowland said.
"That includes a need for continued investment in workforce skills including regular mandatory training in palliative care for everyone providing direct care."
"This report clearly demonstrates the importance of having an independent watchdog to oversee progress on the roll out of aged care reforms," Ms Rowland said.
Palliative Care Australia's submission was drawn upon to develop the OIGAC progress report. You can read it here: Progress Report on Implementation of the Aged Care Royal Commission Recommendations: Submission to the Inspector General for Aged Care - Palliative Care Australia
About us:
Palliative Care Australia is the national peak body for palliative care.
