SA Health modelling reveals how many people expected to access voluntary assisted dying in 2023

The number of South Australians expected to end their lives when voluntary assisted dying begins next year has been revealed.

About 140 terminally ill South Australians are expected to end their lives through voluntary assisted dying in the 12 months after new laws take effect on January 31.

SA Health has also revealed 32 medical practitioners have been deemed eligible to undergo training to administer drugs under the new laws.

The Voluntary Assisted Dying Act 2021 passed parliament in a historic vote in June last year.

The scheme was originally set to begin at the end of March but the state government brought the date forward by two months.

SA Health says modelling based on the experience of Victorian and Western Australian regimes suggests there will be about 140 deaths from the administration of voluntary assisted dying (VAD) drugs in the first year of operation in SA.

Voluntary assisted dying implementation taskforce chair Chris Moy said he expected “significantly more” people to “start the process but may not complete it”, as had been the case interstate.

“Patients are already asking (their doctors) about it,” Dr Moy said.

“Some patients, for them, the comfort of holding on to the medication is enough of a relief for their fear or concerns about the dying process.

“They may not end up taking the medication themselves but just having that there is a significant reassurance.”

More than 224 Victorians died through VAD in the first 18 months after that state introduced laws in 2019.

Voluntary Assisted Dying SA president Frances Coombe said her organisation received weekly calls from people asking when the scheme will start here.

“Some of them are quite anxious,” she said.

“The guidelines around eligibility are quite narrow so there will be people who won’t qualify.”

To be eligible a person must be aged 18 or older, and diagnosed by two different medical practitioners, including a specialist in the area the person is suffering a chronic illness.

The patient must have an estimated life expectancy of six months or fewer.

They must also be suffering chronic or unbearable pain, according to the doctors.

Neurodegenerative disorder patients are eligible for the scheme, but must be of sound mind, which rules out many dementia patients.

A medical power of attorney cannot nominate someone for VAD.

In a statement SA Health said a VAD implementation taskforce “continues to review the commencement date” but that it was “recommended this month that the implementation remain on track to commence on January 31, 2023”.

“It is expected a sufficient number of medical practitioners will be trained by January 31 next year, with this cohort of doctors and clinicians increasing over time once voluntary assisted dying commences,” it said.

SA Health has appointed VAD lead pharmacist, Lauren Cortis, who will oversee a team of three senior pharmacists and a pharmacy technician to facilitate supply, education and safe disposal of euthanasia medications.

Ms Cortis spent ten months developing the state’s VAD medication protocols.

SA Health has also created a team of care navigators, including an interim nursing director and four nurses and allied health workers, to help patients, families and health practitioners find their way through the complex process.

Three VAD liaison nurses have been appointed to work in Adelaide’s northern, southern and central local health networks and another will be recruited to cover regional areas.