The latest report by the BMA highlights some honest reflections from doctors about their own shortcomings when it comes to talking about death, and providing the appropriate care when time is short (BMA reports calls for changes to end-of-life care, 14 March).
Almost 50 years on from the foundation of the modern hospice movement, conversations, compassion and common sense are still absent from too many hospital bedsides when it comes to caring for dying people.
Discussions about what really matters to people at the end of life are not taking place and the default is often more medical treatment. The culture within medicine and society urgently needs to change.
Hospices can help in so many ways, including providing placements for doctors, out-of-hours advice lines to support people dying in hospital and at home, and rapid access to expert pain relief via outreach hospice teams.
Hospices need to be deeply embedded in local NHS systems of care, leading on training, role-modelling and facilitating a new way of talking about death, if we are to see radical improvements in end-of-life care.
Dr Ros Taylor
Dr Ros Taylor
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