Background Care conferences are team meetings held for every patient receiving health care in hospital or other care facility. It involves the patient, carers and family and it facilitates sharing information and working together to meet the person’s needs. Successful communication is an important component of the process which results in appropriate decisions being made in relation to available care resources. Integrating early palliative care with cancer treatment improves quality of life and survival. Effective communication among physicians, patients and their loved ones is crucial to end-of-life, hospice and palliative care discussions. The palliative care team in our hospital has been actively involved in the care conferences organised by various specialities. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of the specialist palliative care team in care conferences held in a tertiary referral hospital

Method A retrospective case note analysis was completed on patients who had care conferences conducted while they were inpatients in the hospital over a period of 6 months.

Results The team were involved in advanced care planning of fourteen patients during this period. The median age was 44; the youngest patient was of 6 months of age. Our team was involved in discussion around goals of care and discharge planning. The median duration from admission to care conference was 17 days while the duration to discharge was 3.5 days. The outcome of meeting varied from agreeing for best supportive care, decisions about not attempting resuscitation, early shift out from intensive care unit and facilitating discharge home with involvement of home care team.

Conclusion Specialist Palliative care team has an important role in initiating and leading care conferences to enable better communication between specialities, provide quality care to patients and families and prevent futile medical treatment at end of life.