Palliative care

Abstract

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines palliative care as care aimed at improving the quality of life of patients and their families confronted with the challenges associated with a terminal illness, by way of preventing and relieving suffering through early recognition and dealing with physical, psychosocial and spiritual difficulties. The current WHO definition is given in Box 1.1 While care provided by hospice is regarded as palliative care, not all palliative care provided is in a hospice. Palliative care can be delivered to patients at any point during the course of a life-threatening illness, even simultaneous with curative or lifeprolonging therapies.2 Palliative care can be offered in any setting and is not dependant on high-level equipment, classy buildings or technology.