Politicians disclose end of life policies

PCA has devised a scorecard to find which political party best caters to the needs of people with terminal illnesses

The CEO of Palliative Care Australia says the organisation has received an “excellent” response to a scorecard designed to determine which political party has the best policies for people with terminal illnesses.

“We have received a global response from the Coalition, the ALP, the Greens and the Democrats and we have received a lot of individual responses from minor-party and independent candidates,” said Donna Daniell.

The ‘Quality Care End of Life Policy Scorecard’ was sent out to every candidate in the 2007 Federal Election. It invited them to share their views on increasing access to painkilling medicines and the inclusion of palliative care in the next Australian Health Care Agreements.

Ms Daniell said many people in the end stage of life would prefer to die at home but have a limited choice.

“Access to appropriate painkillers is much more difficult outside of the hospital environment because a lot of them are not listed on PBS,” she said.

“What that means is that people stay in hospital or get readmitted to hospital when they don’t need to be.”

Among the peak body’s recommendations is a call to waive the MBS and PBS safety net thresholds to relieve the financial burden on people who are deemed eligible for palliative care.

“We’re not calling for the safety net thresholds to be altered – we’re calling for an exception for people who have been diagnosed as having a terminal illness, which under normal circumstances would be terminal within 12 months,” said Ms Daniell.

Click here to see the candidate’s responses

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