The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) in collaboration with the Society of Acute Medicine has produced a resource to support hospital doctors in improving the care and choices provided to people at the end of life.
The End-of-life care in the acute care setting resource aims to offer guidance on starting the often-difficult conversation about end-of-life (EOL) care with patients and their families or carers, and ensuring that the patients’ choices are heard and supported, in a holistic and sensitive way.
This resource provides:
- guidance on how to identify people in the last year of their life
- suggestions for starting a conversation about EOL care
- the role of advance care planning and specialist palliative care
- advice on clinical management and anticipatory prescribing for the dying patient
- recommendations for professional development in EOL care
- an addendum on care of the dying patient with COVID-19.
Dr Sarah Cox, lead clinician for the end-of-life care resource, said: “We know that around 30 per cent of hospital inpatients are in their last years of life, and yet in a busy hospital setting, it can be hard to identify when a patient is at the point of needing end-of-life care.
“This resource was produced with that in mind, aiming to equip doctors with the tools needed to identify patients in those last days or weeks of life, and to have open and honest conversations with them about the care they want to receive.
“This is an area of healthcare which is also in need of change in attitude and culture. Death should not always be equated with failure, but rather as a natural process.”
