Assisted Dying Service Quarterly Report 1 January – 31 March 2024

Te Whatu Ora is responsible for overseeing and monitoring all operational aspects of the Assisted Dying Service, including collecting data and generating summary reports. Information continues to be released quarterly, in line with the calendar year.

Due to low numbers, some quarterly data (such as the number of applications by month and region) cannot be reported to protect the privacy of the people engaging with the service.

Please note that the current report reflects a summary of individuals’ interactions with the Assisted Dying Service within the three-month period ending 31 March 2024. Accordingly, medical assessments and outcomes may also refer to some applications initiated in a prior quarter.  

A detailed reporting of the cumulative data across the first year of service (November 2021 – November 2022) is available on the Te Whatu Ora website: Assisted Dying Service Yearly Report 2022. In addition, the Assisted Dying Service Yearly Report 2023 provides further details regarding most recent cumulative data for the year 2023 (November 2022 – December 2023).

Overview of assisted dying service

Between 01 January 2024 and 31 March 2024, the service received 194 applications for assisted dying.

Attending medical practitioners (AMPs) completed 191 assessments and independent medical practitioners (IMPs) completed 141 assessments. Psychiatrists also completed a number of assessments (number withheld for privacy protection) in this period. In total, 100 applications were confirmed as eligible.

Eighty-eight assisted deaths were facilitated during this quarter, of which 34 applications were started in the previous quarter.

Of the applications reviewed during this period, 45 were still in progress as of 31 March 2024.

During this quarter, 95 applications did not proceed to an assisted death due to:

• the applicant withdrawing their application
• the applicant is found non-eligible or not competent to give consent at, or following, assessment
• the applicant dying due to underlying conditions.

Of the 194 applications received during this quarter:

• 79% were Pākehā
• 3% were Māori
• 52% were Female/Wahine
• 76% were aged 65 years or older
• 76% were receiving palliative care at the time of the application
• 70% had a diagnosis of cancer.

Notes: 

1. Total ethnicity has been used. This means that individuals reporting more than one ethnicity are included within each category to which they identify. Ethnicity in this report is based on patient records in the health system, while in the previous reports ethnicity in the application form was used.
2. Total diagnosis has been used. This means that individuals presenting with multiple diagnoses are included within each applicable diagnostic category. 
3. Valid repeat applications are included as unique instances. This means, in cases where an individual submits multiple applications during this period, their information is recorded in the demographic data each time.
4. ‘Diagnosis not known’ includes individuals who have applied but have not yet completed their first assessment with their AMP (Attending Medical Practitioner) as well as those that withdrew, died before this assessment was completed, or were ineligible.

Between 31 January 2024 and 31 March 2024, 88 people had an assisted death. Assisted deaths can take place at the person’s home or elsewhere in the community. The summary by location is:

• 70 (or 80%) at the person’s home
• 8 (or 9.09%) in a public hospital
• 10 (or 11.36%) in a community facility (e.g., aged residential care, hospice, retirement home, funeral home).

The Support and Consultation for End-of-Life in New Zealand group (SCENZ) is responsible for maintaining the list of medical practitioners and psychiatrists involved in providing assisted dying services.

Medical practitioners can be on the SCENZ list for more than one role, depending on their scope of practice (AMP, IMP (Independent Medical Practitioner), Psychiatrist).

As of 31 March 2024, 122 medical practitioners (including Doctors, and Psychiatrists) and 15 attending Nurse Practitioners (ANP) were on the SCENZ list.

A growing number of health practitioners have chosen to become providers of assisted dying services as AMP for their own patients without registering to be included on the SCENZ list. A portion of these health practitioners have subsequently chosen to join the SCENZ group and to make themselves available to additional patients.