International Models of Excellence

Abstract

Abstract Canadians highly value their publically funded health care system and believe that quality end-of-life care is an imperative. Indeed, end-of-life care is consistent with the very values that resulted in the creation of a national health care system. However, the current system of end-of-life and hospice palliative care in Canada has been described as a patchwork of inadequate and inequitably available services. Access to services is influenced by the diseases Canadians die from, whether they live in a city or rural area, the province in which they reside, the nature of their health insurance plans, and their personal wealth.2 Only 5% to 10% of the 220,000 Canadians who die each year receive integrated and interdisciplinary palliative care. The estimated cost of dying in Canada is approximated at $ billion annually, with no performance indicators to suggest that resources are appropriately allocated. Recent federal reports are calling for federal action to address access to palliative care services, particularly in the home. The increased attention on end-of-life care and acknowledgment that services are inequitable challenge those responsible for health services delivery to develop initiatives and to address models of care for palliative care delivery.