Sage Palliative Medicine & Chronic Care

This episode features Dr Carlos Seiça Cardoso (Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal CINTESIS@RISE, MEDCIDS, Faculty of Medicine of the University of Porto, Porto, Portugal)  What is already known about the topic? The burden of chronic, progressive, incurable and life-threatening illness is increasing, highlighting the need to integrate palliative care into patients’ care plans. Data indicate that involving General Practitioners in the provision of palliative care may improve outcomes for patients and families, but the evidence on the effectiveness of interventions for patients with palliative care needs in primary care is still scarce.  What this paper adds? We developed a training programme, from logistics to content, to be feasible for General Practitioners and to address the main topics in which they identified training needs. A two-tiered intervention was implemented, involving training and a new consultation model; this was shown to be feasible and effective in reduci