title: Palliative care training to improve outcomes for organ failure patients.
abstract: Palliative treatment for people with heart disease or dementia may be hindered by lack of awareness of the proximity of death. Of those who died in hospital, 55 per cent of caregivers felt that symptom control was good but 14 per cent thought pain had not been controlled and 45 per cent reported uncontrolled dyspnoea. A further problem was that, despite being known to the hospital, dying patients were admitted to hospital through the emergency department. Here they had to wait in an unsuitable environment although the need was for comfort and spiritual support. The authors suggest that all patients should be cared for according to the principles of palliative care when organ failure is progressive, and that the formation of a palliative care team for terminal non-cancer patients would improve care.