Palliative care in general practice: GP integration in caring for patients with advanced cancer

This survey of Australian GPs (n=56) was conducted to determine their knowledge, skills and confidence in providing community-based palliative care. This is important as patients with advanced cancer often prefer home-based care, with up to 70% wanting to die at home. The main perceived barriers identified in providing palliative care to patients with advanced cancer were: poor correspondence from hospitals, a lack of relevant guidelines and a lack of information or poor communication. Less than half of GPs routinely discuss or develop advance care plans with their patients but 89% would like to receive information about symptom management for palliative care patients with advanced cancer. The authors suggest that GPs need more resources and support to empower them to provide more palliative care at home for patients with advanced cancer. Read the full article here.