The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has launched the first guidelines (December 16) for the NHS on improving care for people who are in their last days of life.
The new guidelines aim to put the dying person at the heart of decisions about their care, so that they can be supported in their final days in accordance with their wishes. The NICE guidelines cover the clinical care of adults and makes recommendations on the following:
- Recognising when a person might be entering the last days of life
- Ensuring good communication and shared decision-making
- Supporting people at the end of life to drink if they want to
- An individualised approach to prescribing anticipatory medicines and managing symptom control
The guidelines will support doctors, nurses and other healthcare professionals to offer and provide an individualised approach to care which we support here at Birmingham St Mary’s Hospice.
You can read the full NICE Care of dying adults in the last days of life guidelines here
