Regional Centre of Excellence for Palliative Care, Western Norway
In 2001, four regional centres of excellence for palliative care were established in Norway, one in each of the country’s four healthcare regions. The government has assigned these centres to research, education, and service development, and given them a role in coordinating and promoting palliative care in their respective regions, both in hospitals and community services.
Palliative care is provided as an integral part of the public health care system. All the five major hospitals have an interprofessional specialist palliative care team, also serving the smaller, local hospitals. Three of the major hospitals have a specialist palliative care inpatient unit. Five nursing homes in the region have a palliative care inpatient unit, while 42 nursing homes have one or a few beds dedicated to palliative care.
Organisation
Our centre is organized with a central unit for research, education, and service development at Haukeland University Hospital, connected to a multidisciplinary network of part-time clinical co-workers.
The doctors, nurses, occupational therapist, pharmacist, and pastor in the regional network have been recruited from clinical services all over the healthcare region, where they provide palliative care as part of their daily work. They have one-two days per week devoted to research, education, or advisory/developmental work in palliative care, covering all parts of Western Norway. One central task is running competence networks for healthcare professionals. The team members have a special responsibility for promoting the aims of palliative care within their own healthcare professions.
Annual report 2022, short version