Palliative care is integral to practice

BMJ 1995;311:1503 (2 December)

Letters

Palliative care is integral to practice

EDITOR,--Zoe Kenyon's editorial on palliative care in generalpractice makes wide generalisations about the skills in andenthusiasm for palliative care of "many general practitioners"in Britain.¹ Few general practitioners shy away from palliativecare, which, after all, is a large and satisfying part of theirpractice. Nor do general practitioners limit their definitionof palliative care and its application to patients with cancer,as many hospitals do. On the contrary, most general practitionersexpose themselves daily, if not hourly, to "painful emotions."Granted, there are exceptions, but the conclusions reportedmust be based on systematic research rather than potentiallybiased observations.

Fortunately, misconceptions about ceiling doses of opiates aredisappearing and modern day general practice is not preoccupiedwith the science of controlling symptoms. Rather, it has advancedin both its teaching and practice to reduce suffering; p

ain control is only oneelement in this multidimensional approach.In other . . . [Full text of this article]

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Palliative care in general practice: Zoe Kenyon
BMJ 1995 311: 888-889. [Extract] [Full Text]

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