Palliative care leaders gather to shape the future of end-of-life care

April 15, 2026

A March 23 planning workshop at Providence Care Hospital brought together 43 palliative care leaders and frontline providers from across the region. Participants represented primary care, home and community care, hospice, hospitals, paramedicine and long-term care. They also included Ontario Health East, Indigenous partners, and patient and family advisors. All play a role in delivering or shaping palliative care in the Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (FLA) region.

Workshop is part of effort to improve care

The workshop was part of a broader effort to strengthen local leadership and identify shared priorities for improving palliative care. Participants were united by a common goal: end-of-life care in the FLA region can, and must, be better.

The Frontenac Lennox & Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT), Kingston Community Health Centres (KCHC), Queen’s Division of Palliative Medicine and Providence Care facilitated the session. A dedicated planning team worked over several months to design a session focused on identifying key challenges faced by patients, caregivers and health-care providers.

Krista Wells-Pearce, vice-president at Providence Care and executive director of Hospice Kingston, led the initiative. She worked closely with Megan Conboy, palliative care clinical coach at KCHC, along with stakeholders from across the FLA OHT.

What participants discussed

Discussions highlighted several key areas where challenges arise, including communication, transitions between care settings, system navigation, and quality and continuity of care.

For some, the opportunity to contribute to system-level conversations was long overdue.

“For many years, paramedics have worked to be part of the broader health system, not just emergency response,” said Michael van Hartingsveldt, superintendent of community paramedicine at Frontenac Paramedics. “It is an honour to represent my profession at a regional level and contribute to improving the patient experience.”

“We have momentum,” said Wendy Vuyk, community health director at KCHC. “It is exciting to see all that is happening in palliative care across our region.”

What comes next

The March 23 workshop marks a starting point, not an endpoint, said Megan Conboy.

According to her, next steps include establishing a regional leadership table and launching working groups to address the priority areas identified during the session. The aim is to move from discussion to action, building a more connected, responsive and compassionate palliative care system for residents across the FLA region.