It’s National Palliative Care Week, and the Rural Doctors Association of Australia say new investment is urgently needed to address growing demand. They say a rapidly ageing population – combined with the poorer health of many rural Australians – makes it essential that governments actively plan for growing demand for local palliative care options in rural and remote communities.
RDAA President, Dr Megan Belot, said, ‘The need for palliative care will increase significantly in Australia as our population ages – and this will be exacerbated in the bush.
‘When you consider the greater incidence of chronic disease, poor health, poorer access to healthcare and the tyranny of distance that impacts many rural, remote and First Nations people, it is essential that we enhance the provision of palliative care services in rural areas to meet the increasing demand in coming years,’ said Dr Belot.
‘To this end, we must actively build a rural health workforce that has specific skills training in palliative care, to ensure we can meet future demand for locally-available palliative care in our rural and remote communities.’
Skills crunch?
Dr Belot suggested that while Australia has many rural doctors and nurses who are highly skilled in providing palliative care to their patients, there will simply not be enough of them in the years to come.
She says active planning is needed to encourage more of the next generation of rural health professionals to undertake that extra training.
‘By implementing greater upskilling of the wider multidisciplinary healthcare team in palliative care – including doctors, practice nurses and nurse practitioners – we will be much better placed to meet the demand for palliative care in the bush in the next decade,’ she said.
‘The Federal Government’s announcement during the recent Federal Budget to boost funding through the Commonwealth’s Workforce Incentive Program (Practice Stream) was greatly welcomed – it could help to increase access to palliative care support for rural patients, as it will enable general practices to recruit a wider range of health professionals, some of whom will already have palliative care skills.
‘But it is also critical that in state-funded hospital and health services plans are implemented to boost the number of rural health professionals who have palliative care skills in their care toolkit,’ said Dr Megan Belot.
Palliative training
‘Additionally, while palliative care does not have the high profile of obstetrics or anaesthetics as a field of Medicine, it is a recognised Advanced Skill in which future Rural Generalist doctors can train,’ said Dr Belot.
‘This should be actively encouraged, given the value these doctors will bring to their rural communities in the years to come.
‘Rural, remote and First Nations people with life-limiting illnesses want to receive palliative care close to home – they don’t want to be located in a distant hospital receiving care while their family is hundreds of kilometres away.
‘It is critical we ensure we can provide this service locally in our rural and remote communities, both now and into the future,’ she said.
