ArticleThe British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners2006
Out-of-hours palliative care: a qualitative study of cancer patients, carers and professionals.
Article in The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners, 2006. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 48 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
48 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- The effectiveness of out-of-hours palliative care telephone advice lines: A rapid systematic review.Palliative medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- How is community based 'out-of-hours' care provided to patients with advanced illness near the end of life: A systematic review of care provision.Palliative medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Co-designing Community Out-of-hours Palliative Care Services: A systematic literature search and review.Palliative medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Why Do People Choose Emergency and Urgent Care Services? A Rapid Review Utilizing a Systematic Literature Search and Narrative Synthesis.Academic emergency medicine : official journal of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine · 2017Pooled it
- Experiences and Preferences for End-of-Life Care for Young Adults with Cancer and Their Informal Carers: A Narrative Synthesis.Journal of adolescent and young adult oncology · 2017Pooled it
- Reducing Symptom Distress in Patients With Advanced Cancer Using an e-Alert System for Caregivers: Pooled Analysis of Two Randomized Clinical Trials.Journal of medical Internet research · 2017Trial
- Writing information transfers for out-of-hours palliative care: a controlled trial among GPs.Scandinavian journal of primary health care · 2016Trial
- Training general practitioners in early identification and anticipatory palliative care planning: a randomized controlled trial.BMC family practice · 2015Trial
- Communication during out-of-hours primary care contacts for people with a terminal illness: a scoping review.BMJ open · 2026Article
- Preparing for home death in rural areas - the experience of family caregivers providing palliative cancer care.International journal of circumpolar health · 2025Article
- Acceptability of supporting lay-carer administration of anticipatory subcutaneous medications at home: a qualitative study using the theoretical framework of acceptability.BMC palliative care · 2025Article
- Exploring the challenges experienced by patients and families using palliative and end-of-life care services: A qualitative focus group study.Palliative & supportive care · 2025Article
- Community out-of-hours palliative care - 'It's a patchwork of services': A qualitative study exploring care provision.Palliative medicine · 2025Article
- Exploring perceived barriers to palliative and end of life care provision in South-West England: bringing together the perspectives of professionals, patients, and families.Frontiers in sociology · 2024Article
- Rural and Urban patients' Requirements and Experiences of Out-of-hours medical care after cancer (RUREO): a questionnaire study.BMJ open · 2023Article
- Challenges experienced by GPs when providing palliative care in the UK: a systematic qualitative literature review.BJGP open · 2023Article
- Free-text analysis of general practice out-of-hours (GPOOH) use by people with advanced cancer: an analysis of coded and uncoded free-text data.The British journal of general practice : the journal of the Royal College of General Practitioners · 2023Article
- Utilisation of after-hours telephone support in a home-based hospice service.BMC palliative care · 2022Article
- Community prescribing trends and prevalence in the last year of life, for people who die from cancer.BMC palliative care · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundNew out-of-hours healthcare services in the UK are intended to offer simple, convenient access and effective triage. They may be unsatisfactory for patients with complex needs, where continuity of care is important.
aimTo explore the experiences and perceptions of out-of-hours care of patients with advanced cancer, and with their informal and professional carers. DESIGN OF STUDY: Qualitative, community-based study using in-depth interviews, focus groups and telephone interviews.
settingUrban, semi-urban and rural communities in three areas of Scotland.
methodInterviews with 36 patients with advanced cancer who had recently used out-of-hours services, and/or their carers, with eight focus groups with patients and carers and 50 telephone interviews with the patient's GP and other key professionals.
resultsPatients and carers had difficulty deciding whether to call out-of-hours services, due to anxiety about the legitimacy of need, reluctance to bother the doctor, and perceptions of triage as blocking access to care and out-of-hours care as impersonal. Positive experiences related to effective planning, particularly transfer of information, and empathic responses from staff. Professionals expressed concern about delivering good palliative care within the constraints of a generic acute service, and problems accessing other health and social care services.
conclusionsService configuration and access to care is based predominantly on acute illness situations and biomedical criteria. These do not take account of the complex needs associated with palliative and end-of-life care. Specific arrangements are needed to ensure that appropriately resourced and integrated out-of-hours care is made accessible to such patient groups.
Indexed as
Identifiers
16438809PMC1821404What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.