Dr Matthew Doré – Palliative Care Consultant and Dr Alan McPherson Northern Ireland Hospice & Belfast Trust Hon Sec of APM and Co-lead Clin ECHO What is ‘suffering’? At its most fundamental, suffering is the state of undergoing pain, distress, or hardship. It is an aversive, negative experience that an individual experiences and wishes to escape. However, […]
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Progression to Specialist: Launch of a new Framework for SAS doctors
Authors Co-Chairs APM SAS and Hospice Doctors Committee Katie Jerram, Specialist Grade Doctor Palliative Medicine; Hampshire and Isle of Wight Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust; Medical Director, Rowans Hospice Paul Selway, Macmillan Locum Consultant in Palliative Medicine; Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust What are SAS doctors? The term ‘SAS doctor’ encompasses Specialty Doctors, Specialist […]
Canada’s Shortcut to Death: How Assisted Dying Fails Our Most Vulnerable
Author: Dr. Ramona Coelho, Family Physician; Senior Fellow of Domestic and Health Policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute; Member of Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) Death Review Committee; Ontario, Canada. In this analysis, Dr Coelho offers a further review of Ontario coroner reports on euthanasia and assisted suicides Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD), Canada’s assisted […]
Art as a tool for reflection
By Dr Tiffany D’Silva Junior Clinical Fellow in Palliative Care Marie Curie Hospice, Penarth, South Wales “Am I going to die?” I was a fourth-year medical student, trying to navigate placement during COVID. My job was to take a blood sample for a patient in one of the COVID bays. I prepared myself by putting […]
Assisted dying: We need to talk about suicide
By Jonathan Blackwell1,2 Edinburgh Inflammatory Bowel Disease Unit, Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK Deanery of Molecular, Genetic & Population Health Sciences, University of Edinburgh Western General Hospital, Edinburgh, UK I cannot forget a Sunday night from when I was 17. I cannot forget it. Waiting on the platform at Wandsworth Common, laughing, joking, waiting for the […]
Summer 2025 Newsletter from the Sapporo Conference for Palliative and Supportive Care in Cancer
Author: Dr. Kunihiko Ishitani President of The International Research Society of the Sapporo Conference for Palliative and Supportive Care in Cancer (SCPSC) President, Higashi Sapporo Hospital, Japan Our Summer 2025 Newsletter is out, and here are some reflections. “Financial Toxicity” from the Perspective of “Human Dignity”: An Ethical Reconsideration in Cancer Care Introduction I recently […]
Physician Assisted Dying: A paradigm shift in the duty of a doctor?
By Rebecca Houghton (fourth year medical student, Newcastle University) and Dr Lily Lamb FRCGP MBBS MMedEd(GP, medical education researcher and undergraduate educator, Newcastle University) Introduction: Last month the Terminally Ill Adults: End of Life Bill passed its third reading in the UK House of Commons. In the next four years […]
Where does palliative care fit in the national ten year healthcare plan for England?
By Dr. Suzanne Kite, MbCHB, BMedSci, MA, FRCP President, Association for Palliative Medicine The Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3297-1042 X @APMPosttweets The long awaited National Health Service (NHS) 10 yr plan for England has been published (1), and reactions and commentaries across the health and social care sector have been posted. There is broad […]
What did a Welsh Spring Teach Me About Palliative Care?
By Kirstine Bøndergaard, MD, PhD Student Palliative Care Research Aarhus, Department of Oncology, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark ORCID-iD: 0009-0009-7877-5934 LinkedIn: Kirstine Boendergaard Follow: CASEMED DENMARK CASEMED Publications: https://casemed.webnode.dk/ From April through mid-May 2025, I spent six weeks on a research stay in Cardiff, Wales, as part of my PhD project on palliative care for patients […]
The assisted dying era begins – what now for palliative care?
Dr Matthew Doré – Palliative Care Consultant Northern Ireland Hospice & Belfast Trust Hon Sec of APM and Co-lead Clin ECHO This is the question weighing heavily on the hearts of many palliative care physicians. The numbers of palliative care physicians are clear (5 surveys over 10 years): roughly 80% oppose assisted dying, 15% remain […]