On 10 September 2024, the Minister for Health launched the new National Adult Palliative Care Policy. The new policy builds on the significant expansion of palliative and end-of-life care services in the state over the last two decades since publication of the first national policy in 2001. The focus of the new policy is on providing universally accessible, person-centred and integrated palliative care, enabling people to die at home where appropriate, supporting both specialist and generalist palliative care providers in their work, and supporting family members and family carers. The new policy is thus aligned with the country’s broader Sláintecare reforms, the 10-year programme of healthcare reforms initiated in 2017, and fulfils the coalition government’s commitment in its 2020 Programme for Government to progress developments in palliative care and end-of-life care. To support the new policy’s ambitious programme, the government has invested significant resources since 2020, increasing the budget for palliative care to more than €155 million in 2024, a €54 million or 53% increase since 2020.
The policy contains 25 recommendations across four Strategic Objectives:
- Right Care,
- Right Place and Right Time,
- Right People, and
- Good Governance.
Specific actions with timelines are identified in the policy document to deliver each recommendation. Key recommendations include:
- Support patient autonomy and involvement of patients and families in the provision of care and advanced care planning;
- Address inequities in palliative care service provision and tailoring services to meet the needs of different populations;
- Support family carers in the home;
- Strengthen financial protection for people with life-limiting conditions and their families;
- Support GPs and other community-based service providers to care for people with palliative care needs in the home setting;
- Align palliative care services to the HSE Health Regions structures and addressing geographic variations in the provision of specialist palliative care services;
- Improve public understanding of palliative care and supporting the development of compassionate communities;
- Improve data collection capability to improve palliative care provision;
- Plan for population ageing and thus increased demand for palliative care services;
- Strengthen clinical governance and embedding continuous quality improvement in all aspects of care provision;
- Develop research and innovation capability in palliative care.