Japanese survey has found referrals to palliative care facilities often come too late

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J - 27 Feb 2005 21:02 GMT

SHIZUOKA, Japan, Feb. 23 (UPI)

-- A Japanese survey has found referrals to palliative care facilities
often come too late to allow cancer patients to improve their quality of
life.

The survey was conducted by Japan's Department of Palliative and
Supportive Care, Palliative Care Team and Seirei Hospice in
Shizuoka. The survey questioned family members of people who died of
cancer in Japan.

Forty-nine percent of respondents believed referrals to palliative care
were given too late in the course of the illness.

Forty-eight percent of families thought referral timing was appropriate,
and 3.8 percent thought the referrals came too early.

"Earlier referrals to palliative care are essential to alleviate suffering
and improve treatment outcomes and quality of
life for people with cancer," said the study's lead author Tatsuya Morita.

"Patients and their families should feel comfortable discussing end of
life care with their physicians and each other so
that palliative care services can be given at the most appropriate moment
for the patient."

Palliative care treats the physical, spiritual, psychological, and social
needs of a person with cancer, both during
cancer treatment and at the end of life.

The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

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Steph - 01 Mar 2005 06:12 GMT

In Japan............

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J - 01 Mar 2005 12:13 GMT

> In Japan............

Yes, well we just had Andrew trying to find who delivers hospice in
Ontario.

so that's part of the reason I posted that.

More was at:
http://montreal.cbc.ca/regionalnews/caches/mon-hospital-deaths-050114.html

Web Posted | Jan 14 2005 12:01 PM EST
CBC News

Terminally ill died in hallway at crowded hospital
COWANSVILLE - The Quebec council for the protection of patients is
outraged that several terminally people at the Brome-Missisquoi-Perkins
hospital spent their final hours waiting in a hallway outside the
emergency room.

In a little more than a year, 11 patients have died while waiting for a
room at the hospital. Most were terminally ill people with cancer.

The hospital has only two beds for palliative care patients.

Hospital officials have been asking for better facilities, but the
province has not answered the call. The hospital has set up curtains in
the hallway to serve as makeshift rooms.

Paul Brunet, the director general of the Quebec council for the protection
of patients, says this kind of treatment strips people of their dignity.

"Terminally ill patients, depending on their conditions, can certainly be
admitted in other resources than emergency," he says.

Roger Fournier, director general of the hospital, says he's been
petitioning the province for more palliative care beds and an expanded
emergency room for years.

Fournier says line-ups for emergency are painfully long.

"We have other kinds of people broken arms, broken legs. Sometimes they
wait two or three days, some times four days in the emergency," he says.

Fournier says there is no excuse for leaving terminally ill people to
spend their final hours waiting in the hallway, but the hospital has no
other choice.<end>

I saw the program. It's happening in smalltowns in Ontario too.
J

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