Canberra Hospital intensive care specialist Professor Imogen Mitchell says more than 60% of Australians are at risk of dying without appropriate end-of-life care.

She was lead author on a study showing patients often experienced inadequate palliative interventions such as delayed pain relief as well as inappropriate and futile investigations and treatments.

The research tracking 1693 dying patients at nine hospitals across the country found only 41% of them saw a member of the palliative care team.

A majority of patients weren’t recognised as being in terminal stages until late in their hospital stay and only 12% had an advanced care plan, the findings showed.