The EAPC published recommendations on standards and norms in palliative care for Europe in 2009. The Delphi technique is a well recognised way to elicit the views of stakeholders and obtain consensus. There are a diversity of international and national definitions and concepts in palliative care which makes comparison between countries and delivery of health care complex.
The majority (122) of standards and norms in five domains (definitions of palliative care, philosophy, levels, delivery, services) in palliative care in Europe have remained unchanged over the last decade. 13 new standards and norms reached consensus, relating to emerging specialisms such as neonatal, geriatric and dementia palliative care, and recommendations for better access to national information sources and the use of digital health records.
New recommendations recognise that there are emerging subspecialisations in palliative care in the fields of neonatal paediatrics and geriatric medicine indicating that care extends across the lifespan. New recommendations also have implications for service quality improvements including enhancing open visiting, availability of essential medicines, better information exchange, including digital medical records and access to specialist equipment.
Future research and clinical care needs to include multiple domains to assess quality improvements in palliative care.
Full paper available from:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/02692163221074547
If you would like to record a podcast about your published (or accepted) Palliative Medicine paper, please contact Dr Amara Nwosu:
a.nwosu@lancaster.ac.uk
