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Previous research on general practitioners' (GPs') involvement in end-of-life care has largely focused on a specific aspect of care or has provided broad overviews that failed to capture individual variations in patient management. This qualitative study aimed to explore Australian GPs' feedback and reflections on the individual-level care provided for patients in their last year of life. The findings of the study were drawn from a nation-wide survey of GPs' experiences in end-of-life care. We analysed responses from 63 GPs for 267 of the 272 reported deaths. Factors influencing delivery of optimal end-of-life care reported by GPs were categorised into four groups: patient-related factors, carer-related factors, interactions between GPs and patients/carer-related factors and broader health system issues. Each group included both barriers and facilitators. Our study highlighted importance of the emotional dimensions of therapeutic relationships with patients and their family, availability and capacity of family support and smooth communication and continuity of care between GPs and hospitals in delivery of optimal end-of-life care. Lack of these facilitators, misconceptions of palliative care and conflicts on implementing care plans among patients and their family tended to impede delivery of such care. On the basis of our findings in the present study and previous literature, we conclude that improved end-of-life care in general practice requires comprehensive approaches to supporting both the GP and family to provide care in patients' preferred place, such as enhanced palliative care training and improved availability of external support for GPs, higher levels of hospital-based services reaching into community settings and broader community-based resources for families beyond simply the healthcare system., (© 2022 The Authors. Health and Social Care in the Community published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: There are no processes that routinely assess end-of-life care in Australian general practice. This study aimed to develop a data collection process which could collect observational data on end-of-life care from Australian general practitioners (GPs) via a questionnaire and clinical data from general practice software., Methods: The data collection process was developed based on a modified Delphi study, then pilot tested with GPs through online surveys across three Australian states and data extraction from general practice software, and finally evaluated through participant interviews., Results: The developed data collection process consisted of three questionnaires: Basic Practice Descriptors (32 items), Clinical Data Query (32 items) and GP-completed Questionnaire (21 items). Data extraction from general practice software was performed for 97 decedents of 10 GPs and gathered data on prescriptions, investigations and referral patterns. Reports on care of 272 decedents were provided by 63 GPs. The GP-completed Questionnaire achieved a satisfactory level of validity and reliability. Our interviews with 23 participating GPs demonstrated the feasibility and acceptability of this data collection process in Australian general practice., Conclusions: The data collection process developed and tested in this study is feasible and acceptable for Australian GPs, and comprehensively covers the major components of end-of-life care. Future studies could develop an automated data extraction tool to reduce the time and recall burden for GPs. These findings will help build a nationwide integrated information network for primary end-of-life care in Australia., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Objectives: To describe general practitioners' (GPs) involvement in end-of-life care, continuity and outcomes of care, and reported management challenges in the Australian context., Methods: Sixty-three GPs across three Australian states participated in a follow-up survey to report on care provided for decedents in the last year life using a clinic-based data collection process. The study was conducted between September 2018 and August 2019., Results: Approximately one-third of GPs had received formal palliative care training. Practitioners considered themselves as either the primary care coordinator (53.2% of reported patients) or part of the management team (40.4% of reported patients) in the final year of care. In the last week of life, patients frequently experienced reduced appetite (80.6%), fatigue (77.9%) and psychological problems (44.9%), with GPs reporting that the alleviation of these symptoms were less than optimal. Practitioners were highly involved in end-of-life care (eg, home visits, consultations via telephone and family meetings), and perceived higher levels of satisfaction with communication with palliative care services than other external services. For one-third of patients, GPs reported that the last year of care could potentially have been improved., Conclusion: There are continuing needs for integration of palliative care training into medical education and reforms of healthcare systems to further support GPs' involvement in end-of-life care. Further, more extensive collection of clinical data is needed to evaluate and support primary care management of end-of-life patients in general practice., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2022. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

We have little knowledge of differences in end-of-life care between home settings and residential aged care facilities (RACFs) where people spend most of their last year of life. This study aimed to compare end-of-life care between home settings and RACFs from the perspective of Australian general practitioners (GPs). A descriptive study was conducted with 62 GPs from Western Australia, Queensland and Victoria. Participants were asked to provide reports on end-of-life care of decedents in their practice using a validated clinic-based data collection process developed by our team between September 2018 and August 2019. Of the 213 reported expected deaths, 66.2% mainly lived at home in the last year of life. People living at home were more likely to die at a younger age (median 77 vs. 88, p < 0.001), to be male (51.1% vs. 33.3%, p = 0.01) and to die of cancer (53.9% vs. 4.2%, p < 0.001) compared to those in RACFs. There were no significant differences between the two patient groups for seven out of the eight assessed symptoms, except nausea. GPs' perceived roles in caring for patients and levels of their involvement in provision of common palliative care services were comparable between the two groups. The usual accommodation setting was most frequently considered the preferred place of death in both groups. However, more home residents ended up dying in hospital compared to RACF residents. There were significantly higher frequencies of end-of-life discussions (ORs ranged 5.46-9.82 for all topic comparisons) with GPs associated with people living at home versus RACFs. One opportunity for improved care is through promoting greater involvement of GPs in end-of-life discussions with RACF residents and staff. In general, more Australians could potentially remain at home until death if provided with greater access to essential specialist palliative care services and supportive services in home settings., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)