Palliative care for heart failure in Greece

While few palliative care units are available for cancer patients in big cities of Greece, this specialized care is generally unavailable for non-cancer patients. No protocols are in use and the use of advance directives and discussions around euthanasia still represents a taboo subject for Greek families. Patients will receive standard hospital care but not necessarily psychological or social support. Terminal patients will rather finish their life in a hospital bed, a tendency that has accentuated these last decades. The family is generally present and regulates hospital admittance, home care and end-of-life decisions. The presence of well-trained and multi-professional teams is very scarce and expensive. Informal carers guided by the family often assume the basic care while medical care is provided in hospitals on an outpatient base or through house calls of privately installed doctors of different specialties. Very few geriatricians are available in Greece. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS and European Union