Tens of millions of people worldwide are suffering in severe agony in their final days due to lack of access to pain medication, a Human Rights Watch report revealed. The report released this month is based on a survey of policy barriers to palliative care in 40 countries and an assessment of the availability of […]
Category: News
Integrating quantitative and qualitative methods – and getting it published
Bill Noble, BMJ Supportive & Palliative Care, Editor-in-Chief Describing a study as ‘mixed method’ never felt very respectable or clever. For years we understood that finding the answer to questions about the value of parts of the health service required different kinds of data. The difficulty was knowing how best to put our findings together. […]
Should the law on assisted dying be changed?
The BMJ shines a spotlight on the assisted dying debate, with a ‘Head to Head’ article authored by Raymond Tallis, former professor of geriatric medicine (University of Manchester) and Kevin Fitzpatrick, researcher for UK campaign Not Dead Yet (7 May, 2011). Tallis argues that allowing terminally ill people to choose an assisted death is part […]
New resource available for GPs caring for children with palliative care needs
A new, comprehensive handbook aimed at supporting GPs when a child with palliative care needs comes into their care, has been developed and made available for free download by UK charity ACT. The Children’s Palliative Care Handbook for GPs marks a new departure for ACT, by reaching out to support professionals outside of the children’s […]
Bill Noble: Give Me a Doctor for Lansley’s NHS
I first remember hearing Auden’s poem during an after-dinner speech by one of the founding fathers of the hospice movement, Eric Wilkes. It describes the poet’s preference for a doctor, whose portly habitus betrays his understanding of patients’ weaknesses (1). The ideal physician is gentle in his approach, calm in adversity and explicit in his […]
Call for abstracts – Palliative Care Congress, 2012
The 9th Palliative Care Congress is to be held at The Sage, Gateshead, Newcastle-upon-Tyne between 14-16 March, 2012. Further information will be available shortly and details will be emailed to all those who attended the Congress in 2010. The Palliative Care Congress is now calling for abstract submissions. For more information on the 2012 Congress […]
New plans will improve end of life care for kidney patients
Three UK healthcare partnerships have teamed up to help improve outcomes for advanced stage kidney patients through the early identification and provision of appropriate choice, care planning and palliative care. Together the three partners (Greater Manchester Kidney Care Network; King’s Health Partners; North Bristol Health Economy) selected by NHS Kidney Care, will develop and implement […]
BMJ on the future of palliative care research
‘It is a difficult topic to study and this conference was a research benchmark in a developing specialty. There is no laboratory test for suffering and you cannot see pain, loneliness, or anxiety on a CT scan. Research is difficult,’ writes BMJ primary care editor Domhnall MacAulay, in his latest published blog. Domhnall attended the […]
BMJ Supportive and Palliative Care receives a noble introduction in Edinburgh
Delegates of the COMPASS conference, including many key figures in the supportive and palliative care community, joined the BMJ Group and Editor-in-Chief Bill Noble in Edinburgh on 14 April to celebrate the official launch of the new journal. As guests were mingling at the champagne reception, the music of the pipes drifted closer. Then in […]
New guidance for GPs caring for adults at end of life
The NHS National End of Life Care Programme (NEoLCP), in collaboration with the National Nurse Consultant Group, has released a set of best practice guidelines for GPs and staff responsible for adult care after death. The guidance covers advice on honouring the wishes of the deceased person and their family or carers. It includes respecting […]