Auditing palliative care in one general practice over eight years

Abstract

Objective — To document the delivery and outcome of palliative care in one practice.

Design — All appropriate deaths were documented over the period of the study.

Setting — One general practice of four doctors caring for 8000 patients in the North-West of England.

Subjects — All patients dying of malignant disease which had included a palliative phase of at least one week.

Main outcome measures — Place of death; continuity of care; general practitioners' assessment of symptom relief; follow-up of bereaved relatives.

Results — 118 deaths from terminal malignant disease were recorded over eight years in my practice. 75% were being cared for by us (GPs) at the time of death. More detailed information was recorded on 64 of these patients showing generally “satisfactory” care.

Conclusions — A simple audit can help maintain high standards of palliative care. General practitioners are encouraged to maintain registers of the care received by terminally-ill patients as an aid to quality assurance in this area.

Key Words:

• palliative care
• malignant disease
• audit
• general practice