BMJ  2005;330:42-43 (1 January), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7481.42-b

Letter

Developing primary palliative care

Community palliative care services are not sufficiently funded

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR—Murray et al say that community palliative care should be available to more patients, including those with non-malignant disease.¹ We report the reality of achieving community care for patients discharged from a cancer centre.

Data from 2000 consecutive patients referred to a hospital palliative care team were collected prospectively. Outcome was categorised as discharge home (patient's or carer's); transfer to another hospital or nursing home, transfer to specialist palliative care unit, died in Ninewells, or referral back to original medical or surgical team. Performance status, using the palliative performance scale (see bmj.com for details), was determined at referral.²

Altogether 96% had cancer and 4% non-malignant disease. On average, patients were in their late 60s (median 69 years) and able to do little for themselves (median palliative performance score 50%). Thirty five per cent (703) were bedbound all or most of the time, and 38% (755) lived alone.

Thirty . . . [Full text of this article]

pamela.levack@tpct.scot.nhs.uk, Ninewells Hospital Palliative Care Team, Dundee DD9 1SY

Ninewells Hospital Palliative Care Team, Dundee DD9 1SY

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Relevant Article

Developing primary palliative care

Scott A Murray, Kirsty Boyd, Aziz Sheikh, Keri Thomas, and Irene J Higginson
BMJ 2004 329: 1056-1057. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Fox, P. A (2005). Developing primary palliative care: Continuity of care is paramount but needs to be tailored individually. BMJ 330: 671-671 [Full text]  
• Murray, S. A, Boyd, K., Sheikh, A. (2005). Developing primary palliative care: Primary palliative care services must be better funded by both day and night. BMJ 330: 671-671 [Full text]  

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