An audit of referring patterns for cancer patients to the Palliative Care Unit in 2 Military Hospital, by means of a retrospective evaluation of the percentage of referrals adhering to a given standard, and evaluation of possible barriers

The 2 Military Hospital Palliative Care unit seeks to provide high quality, holistic palliative care to all patients suffering from life-threatening diseases. This care should be initiated early after diagnosis, to prevent unnecessary suffering and allowing the patient and the family to be part of the decision making process. However, the majority of the cancer patients are either referred very late in the disease process or are not referred at all. The purpose of this study was to enumerate the percentage of patients who were not referred to the palliative care unit; to identify possible barriers to referral within referring doctors and to promote the role of the palliative care unit.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Public Health and Family Medicine

Year dc:date.issued

2002

Author dc:creator

• Engelbrecht, Mari

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/10469

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/10469