Palliative care in Germany from a public health perspective: qualitative expert interviews

BACKGROUND: Improving palliative care is a public health priority. However, little is known about the views of public health experts regarding the state of palliative care in Germany and the challenges facing it. The main aim of this pilot study was to gather information on the views of internationally experienced public health experts with regard to selected palliative care issues, with the focus on Germany, and to compare their views with those of specialist palliative care experts. Qualitative guided interviews were performed with ten experts (five from palliative care, five from public health). The interviews were analysed using qualitative content analysis. FINDINGS: Older people and non-cancer patients were identified as target groups with a particular priority for palliative care. By contrast to the public health experts, the palliative care experts emphasized the need for rehabilitative measures for palliative patients and the possibilities of providing these. Significant barriers to the further establishment of palliative care were seen, amongst other things, in the powerful lobby groups and the federalism of the German health system. CONCLUSION: The findings suggest that from the experts' point of view (1) palliative care should focus on the needs of older people particularly in view of the demographic changes; (2) more attention should be paid to rehabilitative measures in palliative care; (3) rivalries among different stakeholders regarding their responsibilities and the allocation of financial resources have to be overcome in Germany.