Dipna Martin-Robins

There is a high prevalence of palliative care need in medical and surgical inpatients that is largely unmet. All health professionals need to be able to recognise palliative care need and provide generalist palliative care. 1 Introduction Palliative care is an active, holistic approach to the care of individuals with life-limiting conditions that includes the management of physical symptoms, psychological distress, social and spiritual needs (Radbruch et al. 2020).

Abstract Aim and objectives To gain an understanding of palliative care need and service utilisation in adult inpatients. The objectives were to 1) Determine the size and characteristics of the population of adult inpatients who were appropriate for palliative care referral, 2) Establish what percentage of patients, who were appropriate for a palliative care referral, had been referred to and/or were receiving palliative care.