Rural general practitioners and palliative care in the north-west of New South Wales.

OBJECTIVES

To assess palliative care training, involvement and availability of services of 134 GPs in the inland North West of New South Wales.

DESIGN

Questionnaire survey. Response rate 88.2%.

RESULTS

Few had difficulties in managing terminally ill patients, but a significant minority found bereavement counselling very difficult. Over half expressed the view that the absence of debriefing opportunities was a problem.

CONCLUSION

The findings of this survey confirm that rural general practitioners are heavily involved in looking after palliative care patients and require undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education, both in community and hospital care. There appears to be a need for more nursing and medical palliative care consultant services to be available to rural general practitioners and for the appropriate associations to be more active in rural areas.