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Quebec invests more money to improve palliative care

An additional $10 million a year is being allocated by the provincial government to improve palliative care in Quebec.

November 17, 2015  By The Canadian Press


One measure that will kick in next April will see the families of caregivers receive $1,000 to help look after their loved ones.

Currently, 11 per cent of Quebecers who have chronic diseases such as cancer die at home surrounded by their loved ones.

Health Minister Gaetan Barrette said he wants that number to jump to 20 per cent within five years.

“Clearly, we will never see a situation where everybody will end their lives at home,” he told a news conference Monday.

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“It would be in many, many instances impossible to achieve for clinical reasons. Sometimes, patients are in such a difficult clinical situation that you need to have additional resources to take care of them.

“So, long-term care facilities and hospitals will always remain, but within those institutions, we have to organize things that the focus is set to proper quality palliative cares provided to those people.”

Quebec’s right-to-die law comes into effect on Dec. 10 and Barrette said earlier this year that terminally ill patients in Quebec who seek medical aid in dying must be provided with the service even if some doctors are against it.


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