Public Consultation on the Update of the Adult Palliative Care Policy

The Programme for Government 2020 commits to a new Palliative Care Policy for Adults which will update the existing policy contained in the 2001 Report of the National Advisory Committee on Palliative Care. The aim of the policy update is to ensure that people and their families can access a level of palliative care service that is appropriate to their needs regardless of age, care setting or diagnosis.

Palliative care is an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families who are facing problems associated with life-threatening illness. It prevents and relieves suffering through the early identification, correct assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual (WHO, 2020). Palliative care can be accessed in a range of settings in Ireland including at home, in hospices, hospitals and residential care facilities.

The Department of Health is seeking the views of the public on palliative care services in Ireland and the public’s priorities for the palliative care policy update. The public consultation will allow the Department of Health to hear the views from a wide range of stakeholders and the findings will inform the policy update.

The information from the public consultation will be analysed by the All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) who will produce a report for the Department of Health. Everyone is welcome to respond to this consultation and we hope that patients and their families, the public, carers, voluntary organisations, health and social care providers, health professionals and representative organisations will participate. There are two versions of the survey, one for individuals and one for organisations.

We are asking individuals to participate in the public consultation by completing the online survey here.

We are asking organisations / representative bodies to participate in the public consultation by completing the online survey here.

The closing date for the public consultation is 5pm on Monday 25 October. It will not be possible to access the online questionnaire after this time.

See the department’s Privacy Policy.

Any personal information which you volunteer to this public consultation will be treated with the highest standards of security and confidentiality, strictly in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/67 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

How data will be used

The All Ireland Institute of Hospice and Palliative Care (AIIHPC) will analyse the responses and produce a report for the Department of Health outlining the main themes and findings of the public consultation. The individual survey is anonymous. The organisational survey requires the name and role of person authorised to complete survey on behalf of the organisation. This information will not be passed on to the AIIHPC and will be deleted within 6 months of the consultation. The final report may include a full list of those organisations / representative bodies who made submissions but not the names of individuals. Aggregated data only will be presented in the report.

By providing a submission to this consultation, you are consenting to your data being processed by the Department of Health and the AIIHPC. Your data will only be used in the context of the update of the of Palliative Care policy, and for no other purpose.

Please note people can request to see the submissions we receive under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act 2014 so we may have to release submissions in response to an FOI request. This is more likely to happen for submissions from organisations. This means that the requestor might get your answers to the questionnaire, however any personal information included in submissions would be redacted prior to release.