The Current Status of Palliative Care for Non-cancer Patients in Japan: Field Survey on the Representatives of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine

ABSTRACT

Purpose: The field survey was conducted to evince the current status of palliative care for non-cancer patients. Methods: The on-line questionnaire survey was conducted covering 196 representatives of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine. Multiple-choice questions were asked about their medical experiences with non-cancerous diseases, their attitudes towards palliative care, their feelings of bewilderment upon providing palliative care, and what they thought would be required for future education in this field. Results: One-hundred and eleven (111) representatives (57%) responded the survey. Ninety-nine (99)% of the respondents experienced providing non-cancer patients with palliative care, but 63% of them experienced less than 50 patients in the terminal phases even in cumulative total. Eighty (80)% of them said they were feeling insecure about providing non-cancer patients with palliative care, and 83% of them were feeling difficulty when they had to do so. The reasons listed included that prognostic prediction for such cases wouldn’t be easy and that it wouldn’t be covered by public health insurances. What they felt necessary about future education included communication and multi-disciplinary team medicine, in this order. Conclusions: The representatives of the Japanese Society for Palliative Medicine are well-aware of the demands for palliative care for non-cancer patients, but not many of them have experienced such cases and more than 80% of them are feeling insecure and difficulty about providing it.