Home palliative care capacity to increase 50% to 3,600 places by 2025
SINGAPORE — Singapore is on track to add another 1,200 home palliative care places by 2025, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Tuesday (March 19).
The Ministry of Health announced the additional capacity in an update on the 2023 National Strategy for Palliative Care.
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SINGAPORE — Singapore is on track to add another 1,200 home palliative care places by 2025, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said on Tuesday (March 19).
This is a 50 per cent increase from the number of places currently available and will bring the total number of home palliative care places to 3,600, MOH said in an update on the 2023 National Strategy for Palliative Care.
Inpatient hospice capacity and day hospice capacity will also be increased by 15 per cent and 12 per cent respectively to 300 inpatient beds and 140 day hospice places by 2025.
The national strategy was launched last July to expand and improve palliative care in Singapore and enable more people to "fulfil their wish to pass on with dignity and comfort". This is as as the country prepares to become a "super aged" society
To better support the families of patients who wish to pass on at home, MOH will introduce an equipment rental scheme (ERS) to provide affordable and timely access to equipment such as hospital beds and oxygen concentrators.
"Currently, patients who wish to pass on at home face difficulty obtaining timely access to equipment due to unreliable equipment supply, inadequate support to navigate the equipment rental options and high rental cost," MOH said.
"Home palliative care providers also face challenges coordinating the administrative and logistical arrangements to meet the short turnaround time for equipment delivery."
Set to be launched in October this year, the scheme will provide eligible palliative care patients with subsidies to offset the cost of equipment rental for home-based care.
All eligible palliative care patients with a prognosis of one year or less will receive subsidies of at least 50 per cent, regardless of their monthly per capita household income, MOH said.
"Subsidies will be applied to the cost of weekly equipment rental, essential consumables and delivery," the ministry added.
MOH has set aside S$23 million for the scheme, and it is expected to benefit more than 12,000 Singaporeans on home palliative care over the next three years.
In February, the MediShield Life daily claim limits for inpatient palliative care were raised from S$250 to S$460 for general inpatient palliative care, and from S$350 to S$500 for specialised inpatient palliative care, MOH said.
The lifetime MediSave withdrawal limit was also removed for all home palliative and day hospice patients who use their own MediSave.
MOH added that it had also standardised and streamlined "compassionate discharge" processes across all public hospitals. A compassionate discharge allows a dying patient to spend their final days at home.
"More resources have also been made available for clinicians and caregivers to facilitate the compassionate discharge process. In addition, more hospital staff have been trained to manage compassionate discharge," MOH said.
"With this, we expect patients to experience smoother discharges, and their families to be better supported in the process."
Compassionate discharge practices used to be different across hospitals and even across departments in a hospital, Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said in a speech on Tuesday.
As part of its efforts to "empower more Singaporeans to live well and leave well", MOH said it is working with partners to raise awareness of palliative care.
"Together with the Ministry of Social and Family Development and Public Service Division, MOH launched the 'Plan Today' campaign to raise awareness of pre-planning and end-of-life matters through roadshows and mobile clinics in different parts of Singapore," the ministry said.
"There are also ongoing efforts with stakeholders such as the Singapore Hospice Council (SHC), to engage the public to normalise conversations on death and dying."
SHC has trained more than 80 ambassadors to advocate palliative care.
"The implementation of the National Strategy for Palliative Care is a multi-year effort and will require all stakeholders to play their part," said MOH.
In his speech at the official opening of the Tan Tock Seng Hospital Integrated Care Hub, Mr Ong said he hoped that more doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals could be trained in palliative care.
"Dying is a natural process, not a disease," he said.
"It takes different skill sets to manage this process in a way that minimises pain and maximises quality of life by bringing comfort in the face of suffering, dignity in the midst of vulnerability and compassion during life's most delicate moments." CNA
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