Nikki McCaffrey
(Health Economist and Palliative Care Clinical Studies Collaborative (PaCCSC),
Dept Palliative & Supportive Services & Flinders Health Economics Group,
Flinders University
To die at home or in hospital? Aussies want one but we fund the other
Where do you want to die? Provided symptoms can be controlled, most people at the end of life prefer to die at home. However, just over half of Australians who died in 2011-12 died in hospital.
In the same year, about A$2.4 billion was spent on hospital care for people aged 65 or older in their last year of life. But only a small fraction of that amount is spent supporting people to die at home…. read the entire article