A new campaign by the Dying Matters Coalition is encouraging GPs to identify the 1% of their patients who are entering their last year of life.<\/p>\n
The Find Your 1% project aims to promote discussion of end-of-life care in order to increase the number of people dying at home. A report<\/a> released last year by the National End of Life Intelligence Network showed that whilst over 60% of people would prefer to die in their own home, only around 20% actually are.<\/p>\n A key goal of the campaign is to encourage people to think about where they would like to die, as well as to empower them to tell their carers and loved-ones where they would like to spend their final days.<\/p>\n In order to recognise individuals who may benefit from the scheme, GPs are urged to ask themselves the question \u201cWould I be surprised if this person were to die in the next 12 months?\u201d during routine consultations with patients.<\/p>\n However, accurately predicting someone\u2019s life expectancy at any given age is generally very difficult (particularly if they haven\u2019t been diagnosed with a serious illness) and some commentators, including Northumberland LMC secretary Dr Jane Lothian, have suggested that the \u2018somewhat arbitrary\u2019 selection of patients may be ethically unsound.<\/p>\n