General Practitioners’ Perspectives on General and Specialized Palliative Home Care in North Rhine, Germany: An Explorative Focus Group Study

Abstract

Background: General practitioners (GPs) are important providers and coordinators of palliative home care (PHC). Through this double role, their perspectives and their treatment decisions influence PHC fundamentally. This study aims to gain deeper insights into GPs’ perspectives regarding PHC in North Rhine, Germany. Methods: An explorative, semistructured focus group was conducted with 7 doctors. The researchers performed content analysis. Main topics were GPs’ role definition in PHC and GPs’ medical activities in PHC. Results: Participating GPs describe their role in PHC, based on high motivation and positive attitudes toward PHC as a hybrid role: coordinator, provider (mostly in general PHC), and referrer (gateway to palliative care [PC] specialists). According to GPs’ medical activity, participants describe moderate expertise, demanding tasks, and elaborate PHC provision for GPs. Participants stressed the importance of PC in GPs’ work. But also PC is a small field in general practice. GPs’ PHC benefits from the deep trust resulting from the often close and long-term GP–patient relationship. Complexity and bureaucracy of PHC structures as well as the lack of resources and multidisciplinary cooperation are named as barriers for providing PHC. The highest level of care is reached in specialized PHC, which only very few, severely impaired patients need. Conclusions: Participating GPs see themselves as important PHC providers as well as referrers and coordinators. Complexity and discontinuity in PC arrangements create challenges for their provision. Therefore, they long for reduced bureaucratic burdens.