Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List, supporting home care

Most Australians say they want to die at home. But when symptoms escalate in those final days, families often find themselves at the pharmacy with a script that can't be filled. At least not straight away. The medicines most often needed for end-of-life care have to be ordered in, with a two-day wait the norm.

Two days might not seem long. But the final days of life are measured differently. And those two days can change everything.

It’s a gap that’s played out across the country for years, with each state and territory following a different approach. There was no national agreement on which medicines should be readily available when someone is dying at home, leaving families and clinicians navigating uncertainty at the worst possible time.

What was needed was a unified approach. A single list that would work across all jurisdictions.

Now, after consultation with experts from every state and territory, there is one.

>> Read more about the National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List, in this article by caring@home Director, Prof Liz Reymond and published by Palliative Care Australia.