Paediatric Palliative Care Need in Australia

In Australia, there is a paucity of data for paediatric palliative care. Reliable and readily available data is essential to inform health service planning, policy development and quality care.

This project was conducted as part of the Paediatric Palliative Care National Action Plan Project to help address this gap.

The objectives of this project were to:
» Utilising a previously developed population data approach, build a contemporary picture of children with palliative
care needs using Queensland data from 2018 and 2019 and extrapolate to the Australian population.
» Build upon the scope of (1) to determine unmet need – those who are not accessing paediatric palliative care or
who are referred late to paediatric palliative care.
» Develop a report based on the findings of (2) to identify strategies to overcome gaps and increase access to
appropriate services for families across Australia.
» Use biostatistical expertise to develop a model utilising the Queensland data to project at a national level, the
number of children with palliative care needs and the number who might benefit from timely access to paediatric
palliative care services.