❓ Hon Nick Goiran questions potential funding reductions for palliative care. The Health Minister assures that there is no intent to reduce funding, explaining variances as due to time-limited funding and activity-based funding models.
AnsweredQoN 533Legislative Council
QuestionView source ↗
I refer to page 307 of Budget Paper No. 2, Volume 1, line-items “Hospital-Based Palliative Care” and “Community-Based Palliative Care”, and I ask: (a) what explains the significant reduction in funding for both hospital-based and community-based palliative care in the forward estimates; (b) how many full-time equivalent palliative care staff are funded across WA Health in 2025-26, broken down by metropolitan and regional locations; (c) what proportion of patients who received palliative care services in 2024-25 received care outside of a hospital; (d) has WA Health identified any regional areas where palliative care demand is not being met; and (e) if yes to (d), what is being done to address this?
AnswerView source ↗
Answered
14 October 2025
Responded by
Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health
Response time
6 days
a) There is no intent to reduce funding or services for community or hospital palliative care services
Hospital base palliative care – The slight reduction in 2026-27 is due to expiry of time limited components of funding.
Community Palliative Care - There was additional time-limited funding approved above base levels in 2025-26, to address cost pressures for community based palliative care services. As with Hospital-based services the demand for and the efficacy of these programs will be reviewed and evaluated to inform funding requests within future budget processes.
b) WA Health are not funded on the basis of FTE, it is based on activity. Based on YTD August 2025 workforce data, a total of 183 FTEs have been identified based on palliative care cost centres and positions with the title ‘palliative’. 65 of these are based in metropolitan areas and 118 in the regions. A large portion of metropolitan services are delivered by contracted entities and as such have no associated FTE recorded within WA health systems.
c) The Department of Health does not hold this data.
(d) Demand is being met by the existing community-based palliative care teams within WA Country Health Service. Referrals to these services are triaged to ensure timely admission and scheduling of home assessments.
(e) N/A
Hospital base palliative care – The slight reduction in 2026-27 is due to expiry of time limited components of funding.
Community Palliative Care - There was additional time-limited funding approved above base levels in 2025-26, to address cost pressures for community based palliative care services. As with Hospital-based services the demand for and the efficacy of these programs will be reviewed and evaluated to inform funding requests within future budget processes.
b) WA Health are not funded on the basis of FTE, it is based on activity. Based on YTD August 2025 workforce data, a total of 183 FTEs have been identified based on palliative care cost centres and positions with the title ‘palliative’. 65 of these are based in metropolitan areas and 118 in the regions. A large portion of metropolitan services are delivered by contracted entities and as such have no associated FTE recorded within WA health systems.
c) The Department of Health does not hold this data.
(d) Demand is being met by the existing community-based palliative care teams within WA Country Health Service. Referrals to these services are triaged to ensure timely admission and scheduling of home assessments.
(e) N/A
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