Health experts are calling for wider support across the sector for palliative care services.
The call comes exactly one year after assisted dying became legal under the End of Life Choice Act.
"We have been talking more about death and dying in the past two years than we have in probably the last 20 years," Dr James Jap, a palliative care specialist at Tōtara Hospice in South Auckland, said.
But ACT leader David Seymour, who shaped and drove the bill, said it’s narrower in scope than he would like it to be and wants eligibility criteria widened.
"It's excluding people with long-term conditions, and that means a lot of suffering that may not be necessary," he said.
However, the Royal College of GPs believes it's too early for any new legislation changes, and calls for ongoing observation for the next 12 months.
The professional body's medical director, Dr Bryan Betty, said he would like more funding for palliative care services sector-wide.
"There is underfunding for hospice, there is underfunding for specialist palliative care services, and there's under-funding of palliative care to general practices which support patients who are dying," he said.
By the end of September 2022, 596 applications for assisted dying were started, with 294 patients confirmed.
Since December 2021, numbers seeking end of life treatment have risen from around 15 per month to around 20 in September 2022.
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