In 2024–25, 1.6 million palliative care-related prescriptions were dispensed to 488,000 people (1.8% of the population), an average of 3.2 prescriptions per person.
For these palliative care-related prescriptions (Figure MED 1):
- more females than males received prescriptions (273,000 females and 215,000 males). Females also had a higher average number of prescriptions per person than males (3.3 prescriptions per female and 3.1 per male).
- 3 in 5 (60%) prescriptions were dispensed to people aged 65 and over, with the number of prescriptions per person also highest for this age group – around 3.5 prescriptions per person compared with 2.2 prescriptions per person for people aged less than 45 years.
As highlighted in Figure MED 1, there were regional variations in the number of people receiving these prescriptions. For example, people living in Inner regional and Outer regional areas were more likely to be dispensed palliative care-related prescriptions (about 2.4%) than people in other areas (1.6% in Major cities and 1.3% in Remote and Very remote areas). Note that medicines distributed through Remote Area Aboriginal Health Services are not included in these data.
Figure MED 1 also shows variations across state and territory in palliative-care related prescriptions rates per 100,000 population ranging from 8431.7 per 100,000 population in Tasmania to 2,275.4 per 100,000 population in the Northern Territory.
Further information on palliative care-related prescriptions at the Primary Health Network (PHN) level are included in Table 2 in the Data tables for Palliative care-related medications.
