Dr Anita Donley, RCP clinical vice-president, welcomed the publication today of One chance to get it right by the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People (LACDP), which contains the Priorities for Care of the Dying Person as the new basis for caring for patients at the end of their life.
She said:
The Priorities for Care will enable staff to provide compassionate care that focuses on the individual’s needs, and the needs of those important to them. Poor communication with both dying patients and their relatives, carers and friends was identified as a major area for improvement in the recent National Care of the Dying Audit for Hospitals, led by the RCP, so we are delighted that sensitive communication forms one of the five Priorities for Care.
The RCP was proud to be one of 21 organisations in the Leadership Alliance for the Care of Dying People, an alliance that involved royal colleges, charities, regulators and professional organisations, all working together regardless of professional boundaries to produce the Priorities for Care with patients’ needs at heart.
Each member of the Alliance has committed to improving end of life care. As the professional body responsible for standards of education and training for physicians, the RCP’s commitments are as follows:
- The Royal College of Physicians supports and represents physicians, sets and monitors standards of medical training and develops evidence-based clinical guidelines and audits. The RCP also develops education programmes to provide physicians with the knowledge and skills they need for high performance.
- We are committed to the five Priorities for Care of the Dying Person and to the principles contained in the Duties and Responsibilities of Health and Care Staff document.
- We are committed to:
- continuing to improve the care of the dying people
- ensuring patient and carer involvement
- reviewing education and training programmes with our partners on the Joint Royal Colleges of Physicians Training Board to ensure that physicians have the knowledge and skills to deliver holistic compassionate care for dying people
- using our expertise in quality improvement, clinical audit, clinical standards, clinical leadership and palliative care in support of the Priorities for Care.
- One chance to get it right, the commitment statements and other documents are available on the Liverpool Care Pathway review website.