Palliative care providers in Victoria with conscientious objections to euthanasia must not “abandon” patients who want to access voluntary assisted dying, the sector’s peak body says.

Palliative Care Australia is known for its long-standing ambivalence to legalising euthanasia, arguing physician-assisted suicide lies outside the scope of its members’ practice.

But it now says it believes doctors and care workers have a duty to support patients exploring the idea, regardless of their own conscientious objection to euthanasia.

In a new position statement released on Monday, the organisation stressed that members should always have the right to refuse to participate in any aspect of voluntary assisted dying if they had a conscientious objection.