The state government's record $100 million investment into Palliative Care Services is set to benefit regional areas like the Hunter with more palliative care nurses and give a considerable boost to programs already in place.
The funding will be spent over the next four years and substantially increase the number of palliative care nurses with 30 nurses and six doctors, and funding for 24-hour community care services.
"We're really excited about this announcement at the Cancer Council - we've been running the I Care for Palliative Care campaign now for over two years and we've had a lot of volunteers and staff gaining support from the community so it's great to see this funding coming through," said Hunter Manager of the Cancer Council Shayne Connell.
The council say the announcement is a very good step as substantial funding for palliative care is so desperately needed, and they're even happier because around 75 per cent of palliative care patients are cancer patients.
"Things like pain management, support for carers, and all those things people really need at end of life really goes lacking if we don't have the doctors and nurses available. Cancer patients take up around 75 per cent of palliative care workloads so it's a really important issue for us at cancer council and something we've been talking about for a while," said Shayne.
It isn't yet clear where the new nurses and doctors will be stationed.
