Summary
Read an Australian Pharmacist feature article about the National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List, which highlights the medicines community pharmacies should keep in stock to support patients at the end of life.
In the final stages of life, symptoms like pain, breathlessness and nausea can escalate quickly. When that happens, families and clinicians often need medicines urgently to keep a patient comfortable.
Access to those medicines can also determine where someone spends their final days. Around 70% of Australians would prefer to die at home, but only a small minority are able to do so.
To support timely management of end-of-life symptoms, Palliative Care Australia, in collaboration with the PSA, Ageing Australia and Caring@Home, have developed a National Core Community Palliative Care Medicines List – identifying four medicines commonly required in the terminal phase of illness.