Stein Kaasa (Norway): Let me show you what integrated palliative care can do - Cover Story - Issues 46 - Articles - Cancer World (open access)

"One aspect of his field particularly annoys Kaasa, and that is terminology. As far as he is concerned, it is called ‘palliative care’ or ‘palliative medicine’ and should cover the vast majority of the advanced cancer journey. But he says confusion can be spread by the use of ‘end of life care’ and ‘supportive care’. “In some cancer centres this is often about competing for resources, with some focusing on what they call earlier symptom control in ‘supportive care’, while leaving others to do the ‘end of life’. Yes, if you have a large palliative care team you can have people focusing more on early symptoms, but really this is often about a resources battle and not integrated care, and of course again it is the patients who fall into the gaps.”"