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Book of the Moment

Understanding Dying, Death, and Bereavement

More books...

Palliative Care Guidelines on-line!

Palliative Care (Adult) Network Guidelines are available on-line at book.pallcare.info

Welcome to Palliative Care Matters

Palliative Care Matters is a website intended for health-care professionals working in palliative care or related fields. You are welcome to visit the pages as a Guest, but please consider registering, as this will bring several advantages.

An important feature of the site allows you, as a registered user, to automatically identify new items that have been added since your last visit. If you also register your profession and home country, several of the pages will show quick menu links to items most likely to interest you.

The site is being continuously developed. Please let me know if you come acrosss any problems or 'bugs'; also, any feedback, comments or suggestions are always welcome at Contact

News & Announcements...

End of Life Care Strategy: Third Annual Report

Sunday 2nd October

The Department of Health has published its End of Life Care Strategy: Third Annual Report. The End of Life Care Strategy was published in July 2008, and this is the third annual report on progress in delivering the strategy.

Download the report.

Palliative Adult Network Guidelines and Paediatric Guidelines published (UK)

Tuesday 19th April

The third edition of Palliative Care Guidelines have been published this week. The Palliative Adult Network Guidelines (PANG) represent the culmination of nearly two years work involving clinicians from eight cancer networks from across the UK who have thoroughly reviewed and updated the very successful second edition. The guidelines are available freely on-line at http://book.pallcare.info and an iPhone app will be available in the next week or two.

End of Life Care Strategy: Second Annual Report

Sunday 3rd October

In July 2008 the Department of Health published the End of Life Care Strategy - promoting high quality care for all adults at the end of life. This second annual report sets out the continuing progress in implementing the strategy, highlights the need for further work and identifies the action intended for this coming year. See report at DoH website

GMC Guidance on End of Life care published

Monday 21st June

New GMC guidance for doctors, Treatment and care towards the end of life: good practice in decision making, has been published and comes into effect on 1 July 2010. This guidance replaces the booklet Withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging treatments (2002). It expands on the guidance in Consent, patients and doctors making decisions together, which sets out the principles on which good clinical decisions should be based, and provides a framework for good practice when providing treatment and care for patients who are reaching the end of their lives.
Download here or visit the GMC web page.

Update on the death certification process published

Friday 22nd January

The Department of Health have published Improving the process of death certification in England and Wales: overview of programme. It provides a general overview of the Death Certification Programme and an update on current progress.

E-learning Programme launched for End of Life Care Training

Friday 22nd January

e-ELCA (End of Life Care for All) is one of the key elements in a programme to improve the skills of up to 2.5 million people working with dying people and their families – a key recommendation of the End of Life Care Strategy published in 2008.

The programme was launched in London on 21 January with around 60 highly-interactive learning sessions complete and soon to be available across large parts of the health and social care workforce. Each session lasts around 20 minutes and includes features such as self-assessment tools, audio/video clips and case studies.

For more information see the e-ELCA News Release.

NCEPOD report published

Thursday 5th November

An NCEPOD report - Deaths in Acute Hospitals: Caring to the End? - has been published today. This NCEPOD report highlights the process of care of patients who died in acute hospitals within four days of admission. It takes a critical look at areas where the care of patients might have been improved. Remediable factors have been identified in the clinical and the organisational care of these patients. See NCEPOD report.

Letters on Liverpool care Pathway in the Daily Telegraph

Sunday 6th September

A number of letters and articles have appeared in the Daily Telegraph on the subject of the Liverpool Care Pathway.
Dying patients - letter, 3rd September 2009
Dying patient scheme should be examined, campaigners warn - article, 4th September 2009
Deciding whether a patient is dying and should no longer be given food or water - letters, 4th September 2009
The Liverpool Care Pathway need not be a one-way street to death - letters, 5th September, 2009

Confusion between Continuous Deep Sedation and Euthanasia?

Monday 31st August

Recent articles in the media have addressed the issue of "Palliative Sedation" or "Deep Continuous Sedation" and shown the confusion between these and euthanasia, such as this one by the BBC...

Advance care planning guideline published

Tuesday 24th February

A new National Guideline has been published jointly by the British Geriatrics Society, Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Psychiatrists, Royal College of General Practitioners, British Society of Rehabilitation Medicine, Alzheimer's Society, Help the Aged and the National Council for Palliative Care. It can be downloaded from the RCP website

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