World hospice and palliative care news roundup – 16 May 2016

Categories: In The Media.

Addressing disparities in cancer care by building palliative care nursing abilities

UK – Bristol-Myers Squibb

International Nurses Day is celebrated on May 12 to recognize the important contributions made by nurses to the health care profession.  The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has been a long-time champion of partners and programs that support nurses in the delivery of health care and in their advocacy for system-wide change that improves patient care.

New coalition confronts fear, distrust in end-of-life care

US – Boston Globe

The inaugural meeting of the Massachusetts Coalition for Serious Illness Care brought together 58 organizations on Thursday to talk about improvements to end-of-life care.

Sedation at the end of life – a nation-wide study in palliative care units in Austria

 Austria – BioMed Central

Sedation is used to an increasing extent in end-of-life care. Definitions and indications in this field are based on expert opinions and case series. Little is known about this practice at palliative care units in Austria.

California’s new right-to-die law: Questions and answers

US – The Mercury News

California’s controversial new law — the End of Life Option Act — raises both complex and practical questions. The language of the law, as well as experiences with Oregon’s similar Death With Dignity Act, provides some insight into how the law will work in the Golden State. Here are some questions and answers.

Terminally ill patients ‘denied consistent standards of care’

Scotland – The Scotsman

Terminally ill patients are being denied consistent standards of care despite attempts to improve treatment, new research has found.

Efforts to improve palliative care deserve support

US – Billings Gazette

Having been initially diagnosed with cancer at age 5 and having gone through cancer six times, I’ve experienced first-hand how the mental and physical side effects of treatment can take a toll on one’s quality of life.

The NHS must provide dignity for the dying

UK – The Telegraph

There is a desperate need for the NHS to improve its quality of palliative care. Last week The Sunday Telegraph reported a warning made by a coalition of doctors and charities that dying patients are being abandoned at nights and weekends.

America’s Other Epidemic: Chronic Untreated Pain

US – Townhall

The death of Prince, who apparently had a Percocet problem, and a 2016 presidential primary peppered with New England town halls that delved into increased heroin overdoses and prescription drug abuse have converged to create what CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta calls “a public health epidemic.”

Centre finally comes up with a draft bill on ‘passive euthanasia

India – The Times of India

After years of debate and legal battles, the Union government has come up with a draft bill on passive euthanasia that gives patients the right to “withhold or withdraw medical treatment to her or himself” and “allow nature to take its own course”.

Court to rule on forced radiotherapy treatment for Perth boy Oshin Kiszko, 6

Australia – WA today

Cases such as that of Perth six-year-old Oshin Kiszko, undergoing chemotherapy against his parents’ wishes, leave courts ‘scrambling in the dark’, a prominent West Australian barrister says.

Doctor’s Notes: Palliative care is not about dying, but about quality of living

ehospice Canada

End-of-life care is about more than assisted suicide, and it doesn’t mean giving up or ‘stopping the fight.’

Bridging the gap between palliative care and neurology

ehospice Ireland

Siobhán Fox reveals key learnings from the Palliative care in Neurology conference at Cicely Saunders Institute, King’s College London.

Q&A with Kate Heaps, Hospice UK advisory council representative for London

ehospice UK

Kate Heaps, CEO at Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice, recently joined the Hospice UK advisory council as representative for London. We caught up with Kate to find out more about how she came to work in the hospice sector and why she was keen to join the advisory council.

House passes Opioids bills

ehospice USA

In a rare showing of bipartisanship, the House of Representatives passed several bills this past week designed to curb the opioid abuse epidemic in the U.S.

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