Palliative care beds at Lourdes Hospital could increase, following a move by Dubbo City Council to call on key government officials and health representatives to increase funding.
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Councillor Ben Shields raised the issue at the July council meeting earlier in the week when he introduced a motion to highlight the limited availability of specialist palliative care in Dubbo.
As part of the motion council will write to federal Health Minister Susan Ley, federal Member for Parkes Mark Coulton, state Member for Dubbo Troy Grant, NSW Health Minister Gillian Skinner and Western NSW Local Health District CEO Scott McLachlan.
Cr Shields said the time when people needed the government the most was at the end of their life when they were in need of palliative care.
"Dubbo has a number of specialist positions, but no specialist palliative care positions," Cr Shields said.
The two palliative care nurses at Lourdes Hospital barely provided a service to Dubbo's 40,000 people and the additional 100,000 people in the surrounding areas, he said.
Councillor Tina Reynolds said Dubbo had some of the best palliative care services in the state, but more information should have been collected before the motion was brought to council.
"I've had both my parents pass away from cancer and both be in palliative care, one was in RPA (Royal Prince Alfred Hospital) and the other here in Dubbo. I can tell you right now Dubbo runs rings around RPA," Cr Reynolds said.
"We have some of the best specialists, the best services here."
She said more conversation was needed among stakeholders before the issue was raised at council.
"How many beds do we have at Lourdes now? How many more do we need? How many beds do we have at Dubbo Base? Do we need more beds at Dubbo Base? Do we need more palliative care services at Dubbo Base?" she said. "These are the things that we should know before we write to anyone."
Councillor Allan Smith said society should be supporting palliative care as much as possible.
"I have a genuine belief that this so called call for euthanasia, if there was better palliative care there, better pain management and better understanding from families and everyone else, a lot of this stuff would disappear," he said.
He said palliative care didn't just benefit the patient, but also the family.
