ABSTRACT
AIM: We aimed to identify rural general practitioners perspectives of the needs of Maori patients receiving palliative care and to discover what actions the general practitioners had undertaken to meet these needs. METHODS: This was a cross sectional postal survey of rural general practitioners. A questionnaire was developed which included a number of questions relevant to cultural needs when providing palliative care to Maori. RESULTS: 186/440 rural general practitioners responded to the survey. 52% said that they had no Maori with palliative care needs in the last 12 months, 23% had one patient and 25% had looked after 2 or more. An estimated 126/204 (62%) Maori patients had died at home. The greatest need identified by rural general practitioners when dealing with Maori patients requiring palliative care appears to be for good communication which they saw as especially important when a large family/whanau are likely to be involved. Other notable concerns were the apparent gaps in some areas for home care and the demand for more Maori nurses to be available in rural areas. CONCLUSIONS: It appeared that there was great variation in the demand for palliative care services for Maori. Some rural general practitioners rarely encounter Maori patients whilst for others caring for Maori who are in need of palliative care is an important part of their practice. There is some demand from general practice for cultural competency training and support from Maori providers and Maori services in District Health Boards. Further research in this area would be valuable.
