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Nearly half of all patients dying in English hospitals are not aware they have only hours to live

BMJ 2007; 335 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39420.391806.DB (Published 06 December 2007) Cite this as: BMJ 2007;335:1176
  1. Zosia Kmietowicz
  1. 1London

    English hospitals are generally doing what they should be for people who are dying, in terms of stopping some drug treatments and initiating others, but patients’ psychosocial welfare is less well catered for, shows an audit of the care of dying patients.

    The audit, which was carried out by the Marie Curie Palliative Care Institute in Liverpool, with the support of the Royal College of Physicians, found that, overall, hospitals are achieving high standards of clinical care for dying patients. For example, non-essential drug treatment was stopped in 93% of patients, and …

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