Health professionals' views on services for patients with cancer-related palliative care needs

The purpose of this article is to describe the work undertaken by a multiprofessional palliative care research team. The team explored the views of allied health professionals (AHPs) on issues, barriers, good practice and options in achieving quality, equity and appropriate access to AHP services for patients with cancer-related palliative care needs. Three workshops were carried out in the west of Scotland to ascertain views of AHPs. These were followed by a postal questionnaire to validate the analysis of the workshops content. To improve the quality, equity and access to AHP services for patients with cancer-related palliative care needs, participants suggested that perceived barriers in awareness, communication, resources, education and service delivery need to be addressed. AHPs currently are working on developing practice and guidelines; however, a review of levels of staffing is perceived as essential to allow AHPs to achieve strategic goals.