A national quality of care collaboration to improve paediatric palliative care outcomes

It is estimated that there are 32 per 10,000 children aged 0-19 years in Australia living with a life limiting condition (LLC). All of these patients would benefit from a “palliative approach to care”.  There are less children dying compared to adults with one child death for every sixty adult deaths in Australia.1 The unique challenges of caring for a dying child, and the relative rarity, present challenges with how to provide the best care to these children and their families. The complexity of providing “wrap around” care for young patients and families impacts service delivery, health professionals’ confidence and capability. In Australia, many families reside in regional and rural locations. In Queensland alone, 58% of the children supported by the State-wide Paediatric Palliative Care Service (PPCS) live in regional and rural areas. Australia’s geography and dispersed population distribution requires innovative methods of delivering palliative care to a child within the context of their family, community and health services.This paper presents a pop-up methodology of delivering education to health professionals as one solution to expanding the capacity of the small specialist paediatric palliative care workforce within Australia, particularly in regional, rural and remote locations.