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Short report
Integrating palliative care into neurology services: what do the professionals say?
  1. Nilay Hepgul1,
  2. Wei Gao1,
  3. Catherine J Evans1,2,
  4. Diana Jackson1,
  5. Liesbeth M van Vliet1,
  6. Anthony Byrne3,
  7. Vincent Crosby4,
  8. Karen E Groves5,
  9. Fiona Lindsay2 and
  10. Irene J Higginson1
  11. on behalf of OPTCARE Neuro
  1. 1 Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London, London, UK
  2. 2 Department of Palliative Medicine, Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, Brighton, UK
  3. 3 Department of Palliative Medicine, Cardiff & Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK
  4. 4 Department of Palliative Medicine, Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Nottingham, UK
  5. 5 Queenscourt Hospice, Liverpool, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Nilay Hepgul, Cicely Saunders Institute, Department of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King’s College London, London, SE5 9PJ, UK; nilay.hepgul{at}kcl.ac.uk

Abstract

Objectives Evaluations of new services for palliative care in non-cancer conditions are few. OPTCARE Neuro is a multicentre trial evaluating the effectiveness of short-term integrated palliative care (SIPC) for progressive long-term neurological conditions. Here, we present survey results describing the current levels of collaboration between neurology and palliative care services and exploring the views of professionals towards the new SIPC service.

Methods Neurology and palliative care teams from six UK trial sites (London, Nottingham, Liverpool, Cardiff, Brighton and Chertsey) were approached via email to complete an online survey. The survey was launched in July 2015 and consisted of multiple choice or open comment questions with responses collected using online forms.

Results 33 neurology and 26 palliative care professionals responded. Collaborations between the two specialties were reported as being ‘good/excellent’ by 36% of neurology and by 58% of palliative care professionals. However, nearly half (45%) of neurology compared with only 12% of palliative care professionals rated current levels as being ‘poor/none’. Both professional groups felt that the new SIPC service would influence future collaborations for the better. However, they identified a number of barriers for the new SIPC service such as resources and clinician awareness.

Conclusions Our results demonstrate the opportunity to increase collaboration between neurology and palliative care services for people with progressive neurological conditions, and the acceptability of SIPC as a model to support this.

Trial registration number ISRCTN18337380; Pre-results.

  • chronic conditions
  • communication
  • clinical decisions
  • neurological conditions

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2017-001354

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors NH was responsible for the data collection, data analysis and for the initial draft and subsequent versions of this manuscript. WG, CJE, DJ, LMW, AB, VC, KEG, FL and IJH all contributed to the conception and design of the work, commented on the initial draft and approved the final version of the manuscript.

    • Funding WG, CJE, DJ, AB, VC and IJH had financial support from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), Health Services & Delivery Research programme (HS & DR) (12/130/47) for the submitted work. WG and IJH also had financial support from the NIHR Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research & Care (CLAHRC), South London. In addition, CJE is funded by an Health Education England/NIHR Senior Clinical Lectureship and IJH holds an NIHR Emeritus Senior Investigator award.

    • Disclaimer The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the National Health Service, NIHR or Department of Health.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval National Research Ethics Service Committee London South East.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.