consultation
Providing quality end-of-life
care to your patients
Share your insights in policy
consultation
E
veryone eventually dies. However, few of us die
suddenly and so many of us will face difficult
decisions as we try to live as well as possible until
we die. What role do physicians have to play in
helping patients plan for these difficult times and what can
physicians do to improve the quality of a patient’s life in
those last months, weeks, and days?
The draft Planning for and Providing Quality Endof-Life Care policy sets out the College’s expectations
and provides guidance for physicians when planning
for and providing quality care at the end of life. The
College wants to hear your thoughts on the draft policy
through our consultation.
Dr. Carol Leet was chairing the working group that
developed the draft policy when she lost her own father.
Her personal experience gave her a deeper sense of how
difficult it was to be a substitute decision-maker and
navigate through the medical system, while dealing with
so much grief and sadness.
“The most important qualities we found in the
members of the medical team were compassion and the
ability to communicate. I think the draft policy reflects
the importance of those qualities.”
She urges physicians to read the full draft policy at
www.cpso.on.ca and provide their comments during the
consulation.
The Planning for and Providing Quality End-of-Life Care draft policy:
• Requires physicians to communicate effectively and
compassionately and to initiate communication as
early as possible and as regularly and as often as is
necessary to share information.
photo: istockphoto.com
• Recognizes the importance of advance care planning
and states that physicians have a professional responsibility to engage patients in advance care planning and
to understand their patient’s wishes, values, and beliefs
regarding end-of-life care; the policy also provides
guidance to facilitate this process.
• otes that palliative care can be provided at any
N
stage of a patient’s life-threatening illness or life-limiting chronic condition.
• tates that palliative care does not have to be provided
S
by palliative care specialists, but where appropriate
and available physicians are advised to involve them.
• ets out expectations of physicians with respect to
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life-saving and life-sustaining treatments.