Objective To explore the obstacles in palliative care consultation services and put forward the suggestions for improving the services in grade A tertiary hospitals. Methods A semi-structured interview was conducted with 17 medical workers who had requested palliative care consultation services in Peking Union Medical College Hospital. Results The palliative care consultation services were hindered by five obstacle factors including insufficient knowledge of patients and their families about palliative care,unsound understanding of medical workers about palliative care,poor implementation of consultation opinions,limited labor of palliative care team,and poor economic benefits from palliative care.In view of such obstacles,the following suggestions were put forward,which included increasing the acceptance of palliative care by patients and their families,enriching the knowledge of medical staff on palliative care,establishing a new cooperation model between consultation team and medical staff,strengthening the institutional guarantee for the development of palliative care,and establishing and perfecting the laws and policies related to palliative care. Conclusion Although there are many difficulties in the in-hospital palliative care consultation services in grade A tertiary hospitals,the demand and expectation of medical staff for palliative care are still increasing.
Keywords: medical staff; obstacles; palliative care consultation.