Inappropriate referrals include: 
☛ Patients with chronic stable disease or disability with a life expectancy of several years 
☛ Patients with chronic pain problems not associated with progressive terminal disease. 
☛ Competent patients who decline referral or who are unaware of their underlying disease 
☛ Those whose problems are principally psychological and need specialist psychiatric referral, whether or not they have declined such help 
However, team members may offer advice on a “one off” basis to the responsible team if there are particular problems 
and the appropriate specialist team is not available.
https://web.archive.org/web/20200901202635/https://www.palliativedrugs.com/download/SpecialistPalliativeCareReferralforPatients.pdf