Modelling services to meet the palliative care needs of chronic heart failure patients and their families: current practice in the UK.

Objective: To describe current provision of specialist palliative care for chronic heart failure (CHF) patients, and explore challenges, referral criteria and recommendations to inform service development.

Method: Semi-structured qualitative telephone survey of key professionals involved in CHF palliative care in the UK.

Results: Twenty 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).

Improving end-of-life care for patients with chronic heart failure: "Let's hope it'll get better, when I know in my heart of hearts it won't".

Background: Although chronic heart failure (CHF) has a high mortality rate and symptom burden, and clinical guidance stipulates palliative care intervention, there is a lack of evidence to guide clinical practice for patients approaching the end of life.

Aims: (1) To formulate guidance and recommendations for improving end-of-life care in CHF; (2) to generate data on patients' and carers' preferences regarding future treatment modalities, and to investigate communication between staff, patients and carers on end-of-life issues.

Design: Semistructured qualitative interviews were conducted with 20 patients with CHF (New York Heart Association functional classification III-IV), 11 family carers, 6 palliative care clinicians and 6 cardiology clinicians.