- Ian Hatton1
- Unknown1
2003
ExcerptIn September 2000, the Commonwealth released (as part of its National Palliative Care Strategy under the Australian Health Care Agreements) a National Framework for Palliative Care Service Development. The new national framework enunciated an important set of values to guide models of palliative care delivery and articulated three National goals:
• awareness and understanding
• quality and effectiveness
• partnerships in care.
In 1998 a review of the GMAHS Palliative Care services (The Sach report) identified numerous shortcomings in the Griffith-based service benchmarked to National standards.
They included:
• access for non-oncological palliative care was problematic
• no operational links with community nursing
• no formal volunteers network, except that provided by the Cancer Patients Assistance Society (CPAS)
• inadequate data collection which failed to meet National Standards requirement for a minimum data set (MDS).
The findings included:
• palliative care patients were not clearly identified. There was no actual medical record
• palliative care patients were largely concealed
• GP involvement variable and not co-ordinated. No after-hours service
• specialist services are not well co-ordinated
• specialist palliative care nurses were overloaded with work, including after-hours
• role of district and private nursing was not acknowledged
• no core management, poor communication, medicine/nursing
• no available reference material
• no dedicated palliative care beds at GBH
• patients had no clearly defined pathway to follow after-hours. As a result, most ended up in A&E.
The development process thus far represents a first for our region. For the first time (Area Health—GBH, Community Health), Commonwealth (Division of General Practice, GPs), Private Nursing and consumers have come together to resolve the problems collaboratively.