'Death-denying society' needs to talk about palliative care, says N.L. doctor

A St. John's doctor says it's time to spend more health care dollarson people who are dying.

"This may not be apopular notion, but some of the treatments that we provide for one or two people are extremelyexpensive. Palliative care is an inexpensive treatment that can be provided to many, many people for the same amount of money," said Dr. Susan MacDonald.

• Palliative care in critical condition: Canadian Cancer Society

MacDonald isEastern Health's Medical Director of Palliative Care, andpresident of the CanadianSocietyof Palliative Care Physicians.

She did a review in 2010 that determineD while cancer patients in this province received good end-of-life care, patients with other diseases did not.

"So anybody with heart disease or neurological conditions or end-stage lung disease, those are generally not being referred, and looking at the statistics in the last year or so, there has been a very slight increase," MacDonald told the St. John's Morning Show on Friday.

A lot of people are very frightened of death. We're a death-denying society.- Dr. Susan MacDonald

A Jan. 12 reportfrom the Canadian Cancer Society says if palliative care were a patient, it would be in critical condition, and it called on governments across the country to improve the patchwork of services.

'Almost at a crisis point'

"The government should have acted years ago," MacDonald said.

"We're almost at a crisis point. We've got an increasing age of population, increasing numbers of patients with complex medical issues, and we don't have the services to provide the type of care that those patients deserve."

Services vary, she said, depending on who your family doctor is and where you live.

"IfI'm in Paradise looking after my mother there, I may not be able to get a home care worker because there are no buses and most home care workers require a bus to get to work. So it's not just differences across the province from health authority to health authority, it's differences fromneighbourhoodtoneighbourhood."

Part of the blame, MacDonald said, is withdoctors themselves.

"So many clinicians themselves have this concern aboutdeath. They don't want to talk about it they don't want to upset patients or their families," she said.

"It really gets down to the fact that a lot of people are very frightened of death. We're a death-denying society and health care providers are no different in that respect."

She acknowledged that the government is facing fiscal restraint, but saiddecisions have to be made about spending health care dollars in a way that will benefit more people.