The relationship between general practitioners, hospital consultants and community nurses when caring for people in the last year of their lives.

The general practitioners, hospital consultants and community nurses who had cared for a random sample of people who died were asked about their relationships with the other professional groups and for their views and experiences of specialist domiciliary terminal care services. Many of the general practitioners and the nurses were critical of hospital communication over discharge. The most frequent criticism made by community nurses of general practitioners was that they did not ask for nursing help early enough for people who were dying. This may be because many general practitioners regarded the community nursing services as overstretched. General practitioners were rather less enthusiastic than the other two professional groups about specialist medical or nursing domiciliary terminal care services. They were, however, more convinced of the helpfulness of these services if they had some experience of them.