Doctors doing more palliative care home visits
Despite home visits doubling in the past five years, most services are still provided in hospital, reveals an AIHW report
Doctors now provide one in 10 palliative care services in the home, with MBS data showing home visits have doubled in the past five years.
Palliative care specialists made about 18% more home visits each year between 2014–15 and 2018–19, shows an Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report.
In 2019-20, a total of 2240 patients were seen at home by their palliative care specialist.
However, the figures related only to care provided by a palliative medicine specialist and claimed under specialist palliative care MBS item numbers, the authors said.
