Palliative care services in Australia

Primary reason for hospitalisation

In 2023–24 (Figure 2):

• Cancer was the most common principal diagnosis recorded for palliative care-related hospitalisations (40%) – almost 1 in 2 (48%) for primary palliative care hospitalisations and almost 1 in 3 (30%) for other palliative care hospitalisations.
• Secondary site cancer (cancer of an unknown or ill-defined primary site) was the most common cancer diagnosis (8.7% for primary palliative care and 9.5% for other palliative care hospitalisations), followed by lung cancer (7.6% and 3.7%, respectively).
• The most frequently recorded non-cancer principal diagnosis was cerebrovascular disease (4.6%) and septicaemia (3.5%) for primary palliative care, and influenza and pneumonia (4.9%) and other ill-defined causes (4.7%) for other palliative care hospitalisations.

Average length of stay

In 2023–24 (Figure 2), the average length of stay for palliative care-related overnight hospitalisations was:

• 11 days, nearly double the stay for overnight hospitalisations for all reasons (5.6 days)
• longer in private hospitals (14 days) than in public hospitals (10 days). In contrast overnight hospitalisations for all reasons was slightly longer in public hospitals than in private hospitals (5.8 and 5.1 days, respectively).

Status at discharge

In 2023–24 (Figure 2):

• Over half (55%) of palliative care-related hospitalisations ended in the patient dying in hospital – 69% for primary palliative care and 40% for other palliative care. 
• Discharge to usual residence was the next most common status at discharge (26%) –21% for primary palliative care and 32% for other palliative care hospitalisations.

In 2023–24, of the 89,300 patients who died in hospital (Table 8):

• 2 in 3 (67%, or 59,500) received palliative care during their final hospitalisation – 45% for primary palliative care and 22% for other palliative care
• patients with a principal diagnosis of cancer were more likely to receive palliative care during the last hospitalisations than patients with non-cancer diagnoses – 88% of cancer patients compared with 58% of non-cancer patients respectively.

These results are consistent with a 2024 AIHW report which highlighted that over 2 in 3 people receiving specialist palliative care were an admitted patient at the time of death. This may reflect greater referrals to initiation of specialist palliative care as inpatients in the last days of life (median of 9 days before death). 

Figure 2: Characteristics of palliative care-related hospitalisations, 2023–24