• Dorthe Goldschmidt, Mogens Groenvold, Anna Thit Johnsen, Annette S Strömgren, Allan Krasnik, and Lone Schmidt.
• Department of Palliative Medicine, Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen. dg02@bbh.hosp.dk
• Palliat Med. 2005 Apr 1;19(3):241-50.

BackgroundPalliative home-care teams often cooperate with general practitioners (GPs) and district nurses. Our aim was to evaluate a palliative home-care team from the viewpoint of GPs and district nurses.MethodsGPs and district nurses received questionnaires at the start of home-care and one month later. Questions focussed on benefits to patients, training issues for professionals and cooperation between the home-care team and the GP/ district nurse. A combination of closed- and open-ended questions was used.ResultsResponse rate was 84% (467/553). Benefits to patients were experienced by 91 %, mainly due to improvement in symptom management, 'security', and accessibility of specialists in palliative care. After one month, 57% of the participants reported to have learnt aspects of palliative care, primarily symptom control, and 89% of them found cooperation satisfactory. Dissatisfaction was caused mainly by lack of information from the home-care team to primary-care professionals.ConclusionGPs and district nurses welcomed the palliative home-care team and most experienced benefits to patients. Strengthened communication, initiated by the home-care team would enhance cooperation.

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