A national strategy for palliative care in New Zealand

Despite the evidence that palliative care is effective in improving the quality of life for people who are dying, it is still poorly understood by many health professionals in New Zealand. Many in the general public still see the focus of hospice care as dying rather than living. In 1998, the New Zealand National Advisory Committee on Health and Disability (National Health Committee) established a Working Party on the "Care of People Who Are Dying." This was in response to the failure of other earlier processes to produce any lasting, noticeable change in the provision of or access to palliative care services. During 1999/2000 an advisory group, comprising members with differing areas of expertise in palliative care, drew on that previous work and with the Ministry of Health, Health Funding Authority, and National Health Committee produced a report, The New Zealand Palliative Care Strategy. This article summarizes the recommendations of the report, and describes the professional-governmental collaboration that led to its publication.