A point prevalence study of palliative care need and referral rates in adult inpatients.

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.

Background: Internationally there is evidence of high levels of unmet palliative care need.