Hospital Palliative Care The develo

Hospital Palliative Care The development of hospital based palliative care is important as many patients with serious illness are initially treated in hospital settings. The plan therefore is to develop hospital based palliative care services at 3 levels: basic, intermediate and specialist. At the specialist level, services should be developed in every state hospital whereby these services will act as hubs to support other nearby hospitals within the same state. At present, specialist hubs have already been developed in Hospital Selayang, HKL, IKN, Hospital Ipoh, Hospital Pulau Pinang and Hospital Sultanah Bahiyah, Alor Setar. In hospitals without palliative medicine specialists, intermediate services can be set up whereby a trained medical officer and nurse can form a team to provide palliative care within the hospital at a level which is dedicated but not specialist palliative care. When advice is needed, specialists from the main state hub can be consulted. For hospitals where there is no specialists or dedicated palliative care team, basic level palliative care should still be made available whereby a minimum standard of care for pain control and other basic symptoms are still provided for in the absence of any specific palliative care service. This is also known as the palliative approach. Private hospitals and private nursing homes should also be made to ensure that such minimum standards are also available in their facilities.