Abstract
Goals of work
To analyze cancer patient-related consultations of a telephone helpdesk (TH) for palliative care over a period of 5 years in the region of Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Materials and methods
A descriptive analysis was performed of consultations over a period of 5 years (2001–2006). The discipline and location of requesting professionals, patient characteristics, reasons for calling, symptoms, palliative care problems and needs for support were registered.
Main results
A total of 1,794 consultations were analyzed. There was an increasing number of consultations during the study period. Of the patients, 51% were male and their median age was 65 years (range 0–104). Eighty-four percent were treated at home by their general practitioner. Two thirds of the patients had a life expectancy <4 weeks. Most questions referred to pain (49%), delirium (20%), nausea and vomiting (16%) and dyspnea (12%). The median number of symptoms was 1 (0–6). Of the questions, 54% were related to pharmacological problems, 19% to psychological problems and 21% to the organization of care. Of the requesting professionals, 17% asked for support for themselves. Of the consultations, 14% were related to end-of-life issues: palliative sedation (11%) and euthanasia (3%).
Conclusion
After more than 5 years, the 24-h telephone consultation service fulfills a need for general practitioners dealing with daily dilemmas in palliative care treatment for cancer patients at home during the last period of their life.
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Acknowledgements
The development of the palliative care service Utrecht as part of the Center for Development of Palliative Care Middle Netherlands was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Health, the Comprehensive Cancer Center Middle Netherlands and the University Medical Center Utrecht.
We are grateful to the partners in the nationwide Program for Development of Palliative Care and to Professor Guus Schrijvers for his support in the first evaluation of concepts.
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Teunissen, S.C.C.M., Verhagen, E.H., Brink, M. et al. Telephone consultation in palliative care for cancer patients: 5 years of experience in The Netherlands. Support Care Cancer 15, 577–582 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0202-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-006-0202-y