Development of guidelines for community based clinical palliative care by consultation with GPs in the West Moreton region

Object:  To develop clinical guidelines suitable for GP usage in a community setting or community GP Hospice.

Methods: Collation of Clinical Material by a committee of 4 GP’s. Distribution to all the regions GP’s and extensive opportunities for consultation with them prior to redrafting the guidelines.

Summary: Forty-eight GP’s out of 120 provided input in one of several forms. The rewritten book has been distributed free of charge to all GP’s in the region. The 48 GP’s who offered feedback were happy with the consultative process undertaken.

Conclusion: GP’s hold a fund of knowledge on this subject (and presumably others) which can be collated into a valuable resource. GP’s appreciate the chance to participate in developing clinical guidelines.

Relevance to Conference Theme: Palliative Care is evolving in a way which could marginalise GP’s, as a class of doctors specialising in Palliative Care emerges. Yet GP’s provide the bulk of Palliative Care. This exercise was one of “Making Connections” with organised Palliative Care – empowering GP’s to reverse the potential marginalisation through the production of a useful resource.