Catherine D'Souza: ANZ Society of Palliative Medicine Chair on New Zealand's palliative care system dropping to rank 12th in the world

Our palliative care system may be waning as demand grows, prompting a push for action. 

We've fallen from third in the world in palliative care access ten years ago, to 12th place.  

An article in the New Zealand Medical Journal finds we have less than a third of the recommended number of specialists per capita, and many are nearing retirement.  

Author Dr Catherine D’Souza told Mike Hosking that we lack the funding to train more specialists, despite having ample opportunity and space to do so. 

She says that the number of people dying is going to double in the next thirty years, and if we don’t take action quickly, already struggling health services are going to struggle even more and fall apart. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some new research for you into our pelliative care system.
So we've slipped in terms of an international ranking, gone
from third to thirteenth. We have less than a third
of the recommended number of pelliative specialists per capita now.
Doctor Catherine de Seusser is the author of this work
and also the chair of the Australian New Zealand Society
Appelliative Medicine and as well as Catherine.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Mourning good morning.

Speaker 1 (00:17):
Is it merely about workers to patients in the ratio?
Is there more to it than that?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
It's more to it than that. That's really important that
we don't have enough specialists despite having ample opportunity to
train them and lots of space to do so, we
just don't have the funding to do it. But it's
also the funding and policy the resourcing of our palliative
care team. So compare it to maternity at the other
end of life, you'd expect a full funded maternity system,

(00:44):
but for people who are dying is often provided by
NGOs with government funding in the background. Maybe about fifty percent.

Speaker 1 (00:51):
Three to thirteen and slipping further in the future. Do
you think or we don't know.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Yes, I think so. Other countries have taken you strides
in improving their palative care services. But as our country
is getting older, the number of people dying is going
to double in the next thirty years. So if we
don't take action fast to get the care in that
people need are already struggling, health services are going to
struggle even more and fall apart.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Anyone know about this and doing anything about it.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
There's a bill in the Biscuit tint Human putting palative
care as a human right and it should be something
that's mandatory to provide, but you never know when something's
going to come out as a biscuit tin in politics.
It would be great to have this as a policy
with government and a plan for provision of the care,
proper resourcing so that we don't walk into this huge

(01:40):
numbers of increased death without planning of how we're going
to provide the care that they deserve and they need.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
I appreciate your insite. Catherine de Suze Doctor Catherine de
Suze a chair of the Australians in a Society Appelliative Medicine.
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