NBHC Care Experience
May 09, 2018
This Doctors Nova Scotia position paper outlines recommendations for palliative care delivery. These include:
- Defining the roles of health professionals providing palliative care, determine workforce needs and ensure the system is responsive to changes in demand;
- Ensuring primary care physicians have access to a multidisciplinary palliative care team including specialists for support, consultation and/or shared care;
- Developing guidelines to identify patients who would benefit from a palliative care approach earlier;
- Providing ongoing support to providers caring to people with life-limiting illnesses, including most of the chronic diseases, helping them to recognize and transition to a palliative care approach;
- Ensuring palliative care services are distributed equitably and can adjust to meet the changing needs of the population; and
- Expanding access to residential hospice facilities in areas large enough to support them, and to palliative care or hospice beds to provide an alternative to hospitalization for people whose end-of-life care needs can't be met at home.
The Nova Scotia Healthy Authority says the recommendations align with its goals of an integrated, multi-disciplinary approach to palliative care.
Related News:
Palliative care approach emphasized by Doctors Nova Scotia - Global News