6. GENERAL STATEMENT 6.1 Criteria f

6. GENERAL STATEMENT 6.1 Criteria for patients referred to the palliative care department include the following: a) Patients with advanced cancer who are suffering from physical, psychosocial or spiritual distress. Patients who are actively receiving cancer treatment may still be referred. (refer to Integrated Model of Palliative Care in Appendix 4). b) Patients with incurable chronic medical illnesses which are progressively fatal with no further options for active medical management or who request to withhold all further active management (e.g. haemodialysis) which will inevitably result in deterioration and death. c) Patients who have acute medical or surgical conditions which are not reversible and will inevitably deteriorate rapidly in an acute ward or ICU and require terminal care. 6.2 Palliative Care Services comprise of 3 main components namely; a) In-patient palliative care b) Consultative palliative care c) Community palliative care Ideally, each component should have its own dedicated specialist, medical officers and nursing staff. However due to lack of human resource, all 3 components of care may need to be managed by a single team playing interchangeable roles to fulfill each component of care.