Dignity in Dying commends new Charter for End of Life Care

1 June 2011

Dignity in Dying welcomes the Charter for End of Life Care (written jointly by the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Royal College of Nursing) which addresses the issue of promoting and supporting patient choice at the end of life to ensure that independence, dignity and sense of personal control can be maintained.

Commenting on the Charter Davina Hehir, Head of Legal Strategy and Policy said:

"Both Dignity in Dying and its charity partner Compassion in Dying support the principles contained in this charter and call for them to be properly embedded in practice through training, promotion and research.

"One of the key principles in the Charter concerns the recording of a patient's end-of-life decisions. There are already tools in place (Advance Decisions and Lasting Power of Attorney) which allow an individual to document, in writing or with a named person, their medical treatment preferences should they lose mental capacity at the end of life. However, neither is widely used by the general public and there is no formal system for recording Advance Decisions in medical records or in an electronic system. This means that when the information is needed it is often not available and patient's wishes may not be acted upon. The charter provides an opportunity to develop such a system and empower patients further.

"There have been recent developments to train both doctors and nurses in having end-of-life conversations which needs to continue. Similarly, spending on palliative and end-of-life care should be sufficient to support the Charter.

"Whilst assisted dying for terminally ill adults with mental capacity is not mentioned in the Charter, Dignity in Dying believes that it should be an option available for these adults who want to control the timing and manner of their death. A safeguarded system would allow for up-front and honest conversations between GPs and patients and sits well with the principles of the Charter"

---

Press releases, papers and documents published on this page are the intellectual property of an organisation unrelated to ePolitix.com. We promote their parliamentary and political campaigning activities as they are subscribers to the ePolitix.com service.

As such, ePolitix.com does not edit, endorse, or attempt to balance the opinions expressed on this page. The content of press releases and other such types of content are the responsibility of the originating organisation.