Background

Palliative and care around dying is provided by health and social care professionals to those living with and dying from any advanced, progressive incurable condition. People often think that palliative care is just for people with cancer. This is not the case. We support people with non-cancer diagnoses too. We focus on addressing symptoms and helping people to live as well as possible until the end of their lives

Good palliative care is not just about supporting someone in the last months, days and hours of life, but about enhancing the quality of life for both patients and families at every stage of the disease process from diagnosis onwards.  A palliative care approach should be considered alongside active disease management from an early stage in the disease process.  Palliative care focuses on the person, not the disease, and applies a holistic approach to meeting the physical, practical, functional, social, emotional and spiritual needs of patients and carers facing progressive illness and bereavement.

These Palliative Care Guidelines have been developed by a multidisciplinary group of professionals working in the community, hospital and specialist palliative care services and provide practical, evidence-based or best-practice guidance on a range of common clinical issues. These will be of benefit to both generalist and specialist providers of palliative care.

Originally published in 2014, the guidelines have received a selective update and were republished in 2019.