Table 2.

Informants’ views of professionals’ communication style, relief of pain, relief of other symptoms and coordination of care between care settings in the last year of life

Care setting	N*	Overall rating
		Yes	Rather yes	Rather no	No
		n (%)	n (%)	n (%)	n (%)
Communication of life-limiting disease in a sensitive and caring way
Hospice staff	1	0 (0)	1 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Specialist palliative home care team	5	2 (40)	2 (40)	1 (20)	0 (0)
Care home staff	1	1 (100)	0 (0)	0 (0)	0 (0)
General practitioner	14	8 (57.1)	6 (42.9)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Outpatient specialist	25	9 (36)	11 (44)	4 (16)	1 (4)
Relative	19	16 (84.2)	3 (15.8)	0 (0)	0 (0)
Hospital doctor	91	34 (37.4)	30 (33)	13 (14.3)	14 (15.4)
Relief of pain
Hospice	60	48 (80)	10 (16.7)	2 (3.3)	0 (0)
Hospital: palliative care unit	84	51 (60.7)	23 (27.4)	7 (8.3)	3 (3.6)
Care home	66	33 (50)	26 (39.4)	7 (10.6)	0 (0)
Homecare	246	112 (45.5)	91 (37)	33 (13.4)	10 (4.1)
Hospital: general ward/ICU	188	82 (43.6)	78 (41.5)	21 (11.2)	7 (3.7)
Relief of other symptoms
Hospice	58	39 (67.2)	15 (25.9)	3 (5.2)	1 (1.7)
Hospital: palliative care unit	84	39 (46.4)	31 (36.9)	9 (10.7)	5 (6)
Care home	60	28 (46.7)	24 (40)	8 (13.3)	0 (0)
Homecare	255	81 (31.8)	113 (44.3)	41 (16.1)	20 (7.8)
Hospital: general ward/ICU	180	58 (32.2)	82 (45.6)	31 (17.2)	9 (5)
Worked well together with other services
Hospice	50	45 (90)	3 (6)	0 (0)	2 (4)
Hospital: palliative care unit	54	35 (64.8)	12 (22.2)	4 (7.4)	3 (5.6)
Care home	68	43 (63.2)	18 (26.5)	4 (5.9)	3 (4.4)
Homecare	244	125 (51.2)	72 (29.5)	34 (13.9)	13 (5.3)
Hospital: general ward/ICU	133	34 (25.6)	24 (18)	32 (24.1)	43 (32.3)

*Number of patients for whom the corresponding question was responded.

ICU, intensive care unit.