Signs of hope for hospices after years of lobbying Governments

Hospice New Zealand chief executive Wayne Naylor and others have been lobbying about a funding and resource crisis facing the sector. Health Minister Simeon Brown has been listening.

There is a need for better funding, training, a holistic approach to care, particularly paediatric care, so there are consistent, accessible and well-funded palliative care services nationwide.

“There’s been a lot of work done to address it,” Mr Naylor said, adding it was important successive Governments maintained the work, so that it was not constantly picked up and dropped.

Health New Zealand has a National Palliative Care Work Programme underway, aiming to develop nationally consistent approaches to paediatric and adult palliative care. There is also the recently-launched Hospice Service and Funding Review.

Together they could rebuild a consistent, nationally funded system, though Mr Naylor predicts improvements are at least a year or two away.

From 2001 to 2015, New Zealand built a sophisticated, holistic palliative care system, then stalled. A slip in the world rankings was due to standing still, while other countries invested and improved.

Research published in the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine showed New Zealand ranked 12th in 2021, after being third in 2015.

Hospice and palliative care workers have had to face increasing workloads or implement cuts to services and face-to-face time that goes against their ideals.

The current national review aims to guarantee a minimum level of care for every dying New Zealander. Dr Catherine D’Souza, spokesperson for the Australia and New Zealand Society of Palliative Medicine (ANZSPM), warns that urgent action is needed. “The number of people dying is set to double within 30 years,” she said in a statement.

The last comprehensive national palliative care strategy was written in 2001. A 2017 action plan was developed but never funded, and more recent health frameworks mention palliative care but fail to make it a policy priority.

FULL STORY

NZ knew how to care for the dying – then forgot: We’re back (By Kevin Norquay/The Post – subscription required)

The Need for Palliative Care in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ Medical Journal)