Author: Dr Angus Grant Specialty Doctor, Palliative Medicine, Aneurin Bevan University Health Board Palliative Care asks us to sit with uncertainty with patients every day. What I didn’t expect was how much of my own professional uncertainty would come from a different source: the ever-increasing volume of literature that I planned to read but hadn’t. […]
Latest articles
Psychological expertise in the national cancer plan: an implicit ingredient?
Author: Hilly Webb-Peploe, Consultant Clinical Psychologist The national cancer plan published in February prioritises both quantity and quality of life. The same month, a systematic review found “psychosocial (psychological) interventions appear to improve survival in cancer patients, with effect sizes comparable in magnitude to effects previously reported in the literature for medical cancer treatments such […]
Summer Newsletter from the Sapporo Conference for Palliative and Supportive Care in Cancer
Here, we summarise the event and publish the concluding statements of the 5th Sapporo Conference for Palliative and Supportive Care in Cancer which was held in Sapporo, Japan in July 2026. The full summer newsletter can be found here Held once every three years, the conference has earned a reputation as the “Olympics […]
“Assisted dying” and the psychiatric reality of death
Author: Prof. Charlotte Wilson Jones, Professor of Psychiatry Education & Innovation; Director of Mental Health Education at Kings College London. Prof. Wilson Jones works as an end-of-life care psychiatrist, psycho-oncologist and has over 3 decades of experience in the field. Here, she explores how proposed assisted dying legislation for England and Wales may impact on […]
What remains when a cure is no longer possible?
Author: Maria Balhara, Philosophy student at University of Pennsylvania Maria Balhara is a student at the University of Pennsylvania studying philosophy. She provides spiritual care in paediatric intensive care units through Clinical Pastoral Education at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and writes about medicine, ethics, moral distress, and decision-making during serious illness. A […]
QR-code wristbands for critical information: Supportive Care feasibility study
Dr Elin Harding, Dr Naomi Blower, Ruth Gisborne, Clair Halsey, Nina Amps, and Dr Clea Atkinson Background: The Supportive Care Service (SCS) is a multidisciplinary team working cross boundary within Cardiff and Vale University Health Board (CAVUHB). Patients are referred from four specialities: Respiratory, Cardiology, Hepatology and Nephrology. The patients referred have a high symptom […]
The Quantum Orchestra of Consciousness: A Perspective for Palliative Care
Authors: Dr Matthew Doré – Palliative Care Consultant and Dr Alan McPherson Northern Ireland Hospice & Belfast Trust Hon Sec of APM and Co-lead Clin ECHO Do you know what ‘epiphenomenalism’ means? If you don’t, it means you are normal, but for completeness it is the study of the ‘mind’ versus ‘body’ problem. When your […]
Disgust in Dying
Author: Dr Cajetan Skowronski, Specialty Training Year 6 doctor in Geriatric and General Internal Medicine, Sussex, United Kingdom “The awful, terrible act of his dying was, he could see, reduced by those about him to the level of a casual, unpleasant, and almost indecorous incident (as if someone entered a drawing room diffusing an […]
Can Prognosis Colonise the Present?
Author: Abel García Abejas, Faculdade de Ciências da Saúde da Universidade da Beira Interior Artificial intelligence is increasingly entering palliative medicine through prediction, algorithms can now estimate mortality, identify clinical deterioration and recognise end-of-life trajectories long before they become apparent to clinicians, in many respects, this represents genuine progress. Earlier identification may improve advance care […]
From awareness to action: piloting sustainable palliative care at a Welsh hospice
Authors: Dr Daniel Hattam – Junior clinical fellow at Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale Dr Tiffany D’Silva – Junior clinical fellow at Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale Dr Siwan Seaman – Consultant in Palliative medicine and medical director at Marie Curie Hospice, Cardiff and the Vale Dr Kate Crossland – Speciality […]