General Palliative Care During The Pandemic

Background The German healthcare system is facing unprecedented challenges due to the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic. Palliative care for critically ill patients and their families was also severely compromised, especially during the first wave of the pandemic, in both inpatient and outpatient settings. Materials and methods The paper is based on our experience in routine inpatient palliative care and partial results of a study conducted as part of the collaborative project "National Strategy for Palliative Care in Pandemic Times (PallPan)". Based on our experience from the inpatient care of patients suffering from severe or life-limiting disease, best-practice examples for improving or maintaining care in the on-going pandemic are described. Results Restrictive visitor regulations, communication barriers and insufficient possibilities to accompany dying patients or their grieving relatives continue to pose major challenges in general and specialized inpatient palliative care. In order to maintain high-quality palliative care, it is necessary to create structures that enable targeted therapy discussions and end-of-life care in the presence of relatives. Therefore, innovative communication methods like video calls or individualized exceptions from visitor restrictions are needed. Conclusions Adequate care for seriously ill and dying patients and their relatives must be guaranteed during the pandemic. Individual arrangements should be arranged and implemented. If available, earlier involvement of specialized palliative care teams can be beneficial.