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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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GMC guidance on end of life care
— Important changes for clinicians take effect on 1 July | | Author(s) | Dominic Bell |
| Journal title | British Medical Journal, vol 340, no 7761, 26 June 2010 |
| Pages | pp 1373-1374 |
| Source | www.bmj.com BMJ2010;340:c3231 |
| Keywords | Terminal care ; Medical care ; Rights [elderly] ; Standards of provision. |
| Annotation | Guidance from the General Medical Council (GMC) on end of life care comes into force on 1 July 2010. Change became essential because of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and after reviews reported how patients with terminal illness are denied informed choice. This article notes some of the changes, the main one being that death should become an explicit discussion point when patients are likely die within 12 months. Other changes include the replacement of "artificial" with "clinically assisted" in relation to nutrition and hydration; and "best interests" with "overall benefit". The article notes subjects likely to provoke professional debate: decisions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR); resolving of clinical disagreements; administration of analgesia and sedatives at the end of life; and whether the guidance only applies to specialties managing progressive incurable diseases. The guidance is an important opportunity for the medical profession to re-establish public confidence that made this guidance necessary. The guidance, 'Treatment and care towards the end of life: good practice in decision making' can be found on the GMC website (at http://www.gmc-uk.org/guidance/ethical_guidance/68... (RH). |
| Accession Number | CPA-100630206 A |
| Classmark | LV: LK: IKR: 583 * |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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