Original Title: Atención domiciliaria al paciente en situación terminal en la Comunidad Autónoma del País Vasco

Authors' objectives: An analysis is made of the situation of the care for oncological terminal patients in the Basque Autonomous Community, making reference to the resources available in Palliative Care, its distribution and accessibility for the population, proposing improvements. The study of non oncological patients is excluded for logistics reasons.

Authors' results and conclusions: Heterogeneity was detected in the distribution of resources. Most patients died in hospitals (60%), even when most of the professionals (81%) considered the home to be the most appropriate location. Families in the Basque Autonomous Community comprise few members (

Authors' recommendations: As a result of the data gathered in the Survey, the need is detected for specific training in palliative care for almost all professionals. In this sense, the Care Protocol we have drawn up may, we believe, make a major contribution to this. All health care professionals must be aware of the resources available in their environment and the way to gain access to these. It is vital to ensure coordination between all health care levels, facilitating access to available resources, at the precise moment these are required. In this sense, a number of ideas are offered on the coordination of care in each province, in accordance with their resources. It would be advisable to create and/or promote the figure of Palliative Coordinator, as well as to increase the number of beds (Palliative Units) and redistribute these geographically.

Authors' methods: An analysis is made of deaths occurred in public and private institutions in the Basque Autonomous Community during the year 2002 (data offered by the centres themselves and the Central Services of Osakidetza-Basque Health Service), determining which patients died due to tumours and crossreferencing the data with those provided by EUSTAT (Basque Statistics Institute) on deaths due to tumours in the Basque Autonomous Community. Bibliographical Search An automatic search has been made of the following databases: MEDLINE, COCHRANE DATABASE OF SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS, DARE and TRIP DATABASE, using the following terms: Palliative care, Hospice care, Supportive care, Cancer, Health care, Terminal care. All the articles included in these databases in December 2003, have been included. Survey A semi-structured, self-administered survey was designed, consisting of 16 questions and designed for all health care staff in the Basque Autonomous Community in contact with or having professional responsibilities with terminal cancer patients, both in public and private centres. The main aspects considered in the survey were as follows: Knowledge, use and accessibility of available health care resources; habitual place of death of terminal patients; opinion about the adequacy of such places; care requirements; coordination among resources; major shortcomings. A specific computerised database was created using the EpiData programme. The statistical analysis was carried out using the Stata 8 programme for Windows.

Project Status: Completed

Year Published: 2007

URL for published report: https://www.euskadi.eus/contenidos/informacion/2007_osteba_publicacion/es_def/adjuntos/d_07-01_domiciliaria.pdf

English language abstract: An English language summary is available

Publication Type: Rapid Review

Country: Spain

Organisation Name: Basque Office for Health Technology Assessment

Contact Address: C/ Donostia – San Sebastián, 1 (Edificio Lakua II, 4ª planta) 01010 Vitoria - Gasteiz

Contact Name: Lorea Galnares-Cordero

Contact Email: lgalnares@bioef.eus

Copyright: <p>Basque Office for Health Technology Assessment, Health Department Basque Government (OSTEBA)</p>