End of life treatment and care: Good practice in decision-making

The GMC is consulting on new draft guidance, End of life treatment and care: Good practice in decision-making. The guidance is intended mainly for doctors, but may also help patients and the public, and other health and social care staff, to understand what they can expect from doctors involved in caring for patients who are dying.  

The new guidance updates and builds on our existing publication Withholding and withdrawing life-prolonging treatments (2002) which clarified what we regarded as acceptable practice in this difficult area of end of life care. Since it was published, there have been significant changes in legislation, case law, public policy and the understanding of the effects of treatments, all of which affect the framework within which end of life care is provided. The GMC has also produced new guidance on Consent: patients and doctors making decisions together (2008) which sets out the broad principles of good decision-making which apply across the range of situations that doctors face, including end of life care. It was agreed that the Withholding and withdrawing guidance should be reviewed and updated to take account of these developments.

The review has been carried out by a Working Group chaired by Lady Christine Eames, a former Northern Ireland Human Rights Commissioner. The Working Group members come from around the UK and from a range of backgrounds including medicine and nursing, patient and carer organisations and faith groups. The new draft guidance covers issues around withholding and withdrawing treatment, but also provides advice on end of life care more generally, including on advance care planning, palliative care, bereavement issues and discussions about organ donation.

The consultation runs until 13 July 2009, and is open to anyone with an interest in the issues covered by the guidance.

Please click here to read the draft guidance