Ben Bowers

Care in the last days of life

Introduction This guideline is an aid to clinical decision making and good practice in person-centred care for patients who are deteriorating and at risk of dying. The patient may have a new lifelimiting condition, one or more advanced illnesses, or both. A decision will have been made that hospital admission or transfer to a high-dependency unit or intensive treatment unit is not appropriate. While this guideline focuses on physical symptoms, psychosocial and spiritual issues will also need to be addressed to give holistic care.