End-of-life care now an option for the frailest

GP’s are asked to put 1 in 100 patients on death list...

11:32 18 October 2012

GP’s have been asked to single out one in every 100 patient to be placed on death list or end-of-life-care.

People in this list are chosen based on their age, frailty, and deterioration. 

 

GP’s are instructed to choose those who are most likely to die over the next 12 months. 

 

Patients listed on end-of-life-care have the option to draw up a living will where they can write instructions as to how they would like to die.

 

This means they can instruct their doctors not to use life-saving treatment if they become incapacitated in hospital. 

 

Launched by Liberal Democrat Care Minister Norman Lamb at a conference on end-of-life care, it states: ‘approximately  1 per cent of people on a GP’s list [of all patients] will die each year – this equates to an average of 20 deaths a year. Around 70 per cent to 80 per cent of all deaths are likely to benefit from planned end-of-life care.’

 

If each had one less emergency admission into hospital in their last weeks and  months, that would save the NHS £1.35billion a year, the material said.