Why care of the dying is still poor

EDITOR,—Mina Mills and colleagues' descriptive analysis of the care of dying patients in four Scottish teaching hospitals highlights an area of medical ignorance or avoidance that still exists 11 years after the study.1 I believe that there are several reasons for this.

Firstly, palliative care is not generally taught in the undergraduate medical curriculum. Like many of their seniors who trained before palliative care became established as a specialty, junior doctors are often unaware of what can be …