Page 233 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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The Local Hospital Network Council last year had a forum on end-of-life issues and decision-making where a number of stakeholders from across the community came. Their work has been included in a report which has been provided to me—I think it has been tabled in the Assembly—which provides a number of recommendations for us all to consider. That is mentioned in Ms Porter’s motion, as is the report from the palliative care conference, which I note Mr Hanson had some concerns about. My understanding is that it was a report of the papers that were provided at the conference and that they were collated as a report of the conference. Those papers are available for reading. The reports of both of the Local Hospital Network Council’s forum and the palliative care conference can provide all of us with information and certainly recommendations about going forward.
In relation to Ms Porter bringing this motion forward, I do not think any of us in this place can doubt the very strong interest Mr Porter has in this issue. She has been leading the work on it across our party room for a number of years and I commend her for the interest she has shown and her preparedness to advocate in this space. As Mr Rattenbury said. It seems that issues around palliative care and end-of-life decision-making is not like any other area of the health system where there is an incredible amount of scrutiny and interest from birth right up to when you reach the end-of-life. At the end-of-life point it is almost like we feel constrained, perhaps by our own mortality. I do not know what it is that stops us from having the same kind of open discussion about end-of-life care that we have about the beginning of life with maternity services and so on. My experience as health minister is very different.
There is a growing level of interest amongst health professionals to raise the level of patient engagement in end-of-life care and make sure that medical professionals are respecting the choices that patients make in end-of-life care, which is exactly the title of the program that has received some extra funding: the respecting patient choices program. There have been some difficult issues I am aware of where the choices made by parents might not accord with some of the decisions that medical professionals believe they have to take in order to provide healthcare treatment. We have seen a couple of those go through the court system.
I think there is more interest than ever before about advanced care planning, healthcare directives and health attorneys being appointed so that information for medical professionals is available if choices need to be made about withdrawing treatment or no longer providing treatment. Some of the work around respecting patient choices looks at some of those difficult issues.
In relation to the palliative care services plan, that has covered off the major areas we need to focus on over the next three years. It looks at how we provide a network service across our healthcare services from the hospice to home-based care to the subacute care to the community health system. There is an element of each of those that have responsibility for providing care to people needing palliative care.
The other area is how we continue to make sure we are able to provide the right type of in-home assistance and care that people need when they reach the end of their life. Speaking from personal experience, I have nursed both my parents in end-of-life care.
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