Summary
Palliative care services
is an Australia's health
topic
On this page In this section
What is palliative care? Service activity Data availability Where do I go for more information?What is palliative care?
Palliative care is an approach to treatment that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing a life-limiting illness, as well as reducing the physical and emotional stress of dying (WHO 2020). Palliative care is not limited to any specific condition, can be delivered at any stage of illness, can accompany curative treatments, and can be provided to patients in any health care setting. For further information, see Overview.
Service activity
Since 2015, the AIHW has been reporting on palliative care services, and the people who access these services. This information provides insights on service activity and can be used to inform service planning and delivery of palliative care services.
An overview of the key findings, using the latest available data is provided below. For further information on the definitions used on this page, see Glossary. Note that the data presented in this report and on this page do not capture all palliative care activity in Australia, due to data availability. Further details are provided below in the Data availability section on this page.
Admitted patient palliative care
Non-admitted patient palliative care
Medicare-subsidised (MBS) specialist palliative care services
Palliative care-related prescriptions from the Palliative Care Schedule
Residential aged care
Palliative care workforce
Palliative care outcomes
Expenditure on palliative care
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In 2023–24, the total cost on admitted patient palliative care was $666.7 million and non-admitted patient palliative care was $218.9 million for the hospitals reporting data to the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority (IHACPA)
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In 2024–25, $6.8 million was paid in benefits for Medicare-subsidised palliative medicine attendance and case conference services, at an average of $430 per patient
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In 2024–25, the Australian Government spent $40.4 million on palliative care-related medications from the PBS Palliative Care Schedule, at an average of $83 per patient
Data availability
Most national reporting uses single data sources, focussing on individual aspects of specialist palliative care, for example, hospitalisations (admitted and non-admitted patient care), receipt of Medicare-subsidised specialist palliative care services, and use of medicines (from the PBS Palliative Care Schedule). Information is also provided on palliative care outcomes and palliative care workforce.
The data presented on this page and in this report are limited to services provided by palliative care specialists or in specialist palliative care settings. A large volume of palliative care occurs outside of these settings, which is not included in this report, due to data availability (see Box 1).
Identifying palliative care (including end-of-life care) in existing data collections and health settings remains a key challenge, particularly for care delivered in community, primary care, and residential aged care settings. For example, limited national data are currently available on community-based palliative care services, in particular palliative care services provided by general practitioners and non-palliative care medical specialists. The data on this page focus on specific settings where systems are in place to record palliative care service, in particular specialist palliative care.
The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) is working with palliative care stakeholders to help address data gaps in palliative care reporting. The AIHW, in collaboration with the End-of-Life Care Data Development Working Group, released the National Palliative Care and End-of-Life Care Information Priorities (PDF 892KB) report in January 2022. The report outlines an aspirational vision for national palliative care information development over the next decade and articulates priorities aimed at supporting this vision.
The AIHW has also been exploring the use of the National Health Data Hub (NHDH) linked data asset for filling key data gaps in palliative care. In 2025, AIHW released analysis of Specialist palliative care use for older people receiving aged care using NHDH data to understand differences in palliative care use. The Palliative care and health service use for people with life-limiting conditions report released in May 2024, was the first national study to provide insights on need, receipt, and unmet need of specialist palliative care across multiple settings of care and in combination with other health services. These types of analysis were previously not possible using single data collections.
Where do I go for more information?
For more information on palliative care services, see:
- National Palliative Care Measures
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing – Palliative care
- Palliative Care Australia
- Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS Online)
- Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme
- Palliative Care Outcomes Collaboration
For more on this topic, see Palliative care.
WHO (World Health Organization) (2020) Global atlas of palliative care (2nd edition), WHO website, accessed 07 March 2025.