• Lucy Selman, Richard Harding, Teresa Beynon, Fiona Hodson, Caroline Hazeldine, Elaine Coady, Louise Gibbs, and Irene J Higginson.
• Dept of Palliative Care, Policy and Rehabilitation, King's College London School of Medicine, London. lucy.selman@kcl.ac.uk
• Palliat Med. 2007 Jul 1;21(5):385-90.

ObjectiveTo describe current provision of specialist palliative care for chronic heart failure (CHF) patients, and explore challenges, referral criteria and recommendations to inform service development.MethodSemi-structured qualitative telephone survey of key professionals involved in CHF palliative care in the UK.ResultsTwenty telephone interviews were conducted with staff from 17 services comprising three main types: hospital-based (n = 7), community-based (n = 6) and hospice-based (n = 4). The main recommendations made were to establish mechanisms for joint working between palliative care and cardiology; to ensure that stakeholders are involved from the outset of service planning; and to involve community heart failure nurses in service provision. Referral guidelines were collected from four services, covering diagnostic, symptomatological, psychosocial and team-related criteria.ConclusionsInformation regarding existing services' challenges, recommendations and referral systems is essential when designing a new service, maximising feasibility and acceptability. This study design is of particular value when descriptions and evaluations of service models are lacking in the literature. The survey gives much-needed depth and detail to the types of services currently providing palliative care to CHF patients across the UK.

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