Doctors who deal with end-of-life care say Canada needs to broaden its approach to palliative care.

They suggest improved access to palliative care is needed for patients with end-stage heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD, not just those suffering from cancer.

Study co-author Dr Graeme Rocker, a respirologist at Dalhousie University in Halifax, says two-thirds of the estimated 250,000 Canadians who die each year have illnesses other than cancer, yet most don’t have access to the same types of palliative support as cancer patients.

The research found only 20 to 30 per cent of those referred to a hospital palliative-care unit have a non-cancer illness.

Surveys have repeatedly shown that most Canadians want to die at home or in a hospice when the time comes, but too often a lack of community-based services means patients end their lives in a hospital bed.

You can read about the research in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.