Ontario’s Health Authority released a report Monday on the state of end of life care across the country.
The nation is facing big inconsistencies in care and challenges as the population ages. However, Executive Director of the Prince George Hospice Donalda Carson says PG is in a good place;
“The city of Prince George has extremely good supports for palliative care both in hospital and long term care in people’s homes and of course at our hospice house. There are very few free standing hospice houses in the whole of Canada”
The report revealed that fewer than one in five seniors have had end of life care conversations with their doctors. As a result 50% end up in intensive care units despite 70% of them wanting comfort measures instead.
Carson says that these conversations are tough for both parties;
“I think that physicians have a certain amount of difficulty having end of life care and death conversations with their patients. You have to remember that quite often they have been their doctor for a long time and it’s like they are a really good friend.”
Both the report and Carson says there needs to be a larger public discussion around the normalization of dying.
The issue is made more important by the nations aging population. By 2026 the number of people dying each year will increase by 40% to 330,000 people. Carson acknowledged that she has noticed an increase in traffic over the years. But she noted that they have the ability and plans to expand if they need to.
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