Principles of Palliative Care

Abstract

Each GP with an ‘average” list will have 20 patients who die every year. Five of those deaths will be from cancer, two will be from a sudden unexpected cause and the remaining 13 will result from chronic disease such as dementia, heart failure or chronic lung disease. Most GPs have one or two patients with terminal disease at any time, although these patients often require a disproportionate amount of GP involvement. On average, 47 weeks of the final year of life are spent at home. It is a sad fact that although most patients spend their final year of life at home and would prefer to die at home, the majority are admitted to a hospital or institution to die.