Palliative chemotherapy may harm patient’s quality of life Chemotherapy for end-stage cancer does not improve, and may harm, a patient’s quality of life in their final week of life, report researchers.…
NICE recommends daily medication reviews in draft guideline on end-of-life care Medication should be optimised and reviewed daily when patients enter their final days, says a draft guideline from the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence on end-of-life care.…
Community pharmacists play important role in palliative careGood communication between all members of the multidisciplinary team is essential for providing good quality palliative care. Unfortunately, community pharmacists are often not included in this and so simply do not know who their palliative care patients are. Many of the problems faced by palliative…
Better information is needed to improve palliative care services Gaps in access to palliative care services mean that many patients with life-limiting illnesses miss out on support they need, but there is much to learn about people’s experiences at the end of life.…
Patients can stop taking statins in terminal care, research suggests Discontinuing statin use in patients with late-stage terminal illnesses is safe and may even be beneficial, according to research in JAMA Internal Medicine.…
New edition of reference guide for palliative care specialists ‘Palliative Care Formulary 5th Edition’, edited by Robert Twycross, Andrew Wilcock & Paul Howard. …
NHS England issues naloxone warningInappropriate use of naloxone can cause patients severe distress and can be fatal, says NHS England in a Patient Safety Alert.…
New priorities for palliative care The Liverpool Care Pathway has been replaced by five new principles for palliative care, which have a significant impact on pharmacy practice.…
New care pathway for dying patients in England publishedA new approach to caring for dying people that will replace the Liverpool Care Pathway in England has been published.…
Worsening pain in palliative careA 78-year-old man with advanced lung cancer is receiving palliative care but his abdominal pain has progressively worsened.…
