Launched in Berlin at #EAPC2019, travelling now around the world!
How can you use the Primary Palliative Care Toolkit in your country? Cc @scottamurrayed@EAPCvzw @WoncaWorld
EAPC Primary Care Toolkit front-page news in October issue of WONCA Global Family Doctor newsletter. View the article https://t.co/rzf5V3mbkq & download toolkit now! EAPC Reference Group on Primary Care https://t.co/cRkCH2Lbf0 @scottamurrayed@s_moine#PrimaryPalliativeCare
This is very wise. Danny, how I wish I had known of you before. I am merely a doctor who works with terminally ill pts on a daily basis. An incorrigible atheist (irrelevant, but also a bit inconvenient to black&white thinkers, I know, I know), with my petty concerns about aspects that may affect the many people I see. I just wish I had you on stand-by. You who work so extensively with social workers, in prisons, with people who want to end their own lives after experiencing complex grief, you who are often found in homeless shelters prescribing Fentanyl patches to the drug user who also has an advanced head and neck cancer, you who deals daily with cancer pain, with breathlessness, with people who have no money to even plan where their next meal will come from. You, who are an advocate for the pregnant lady diagnosed with stage IV breast cancer (she is also 26 wks pregnant) and wishes to end it all, where no one is that keen to challenge her motivation, and everyone knows there is a coercive husband who will complain/sue if there is any hint of a challenge. You who never closes his eyes to the plight of those with less of a voice, whose right to die may become a bit of a duty, old boy. You, who I will be able to phone when oncall at 3am, when a call comes in to me (from a paramedic) as an expert on seizures when someone's assisted suicide has gone completely wrong and they need advice on airway and seizure management, and the family are screaming in terror at what was promised to be a dignified death. I can tell you one thing, I can never have quite enough of people just like you.
The concern is they know about structural and systemic inequalities. The MPs I’ve spoken to advocate for these issues all the time, but for some reason think it’s ok if someone is assumed to have less than 6 months to live.
It’s not an either/or.
You can support the legalisation of assisted dying AND insist that those who it will shift risk to must also be protected sufficiently.
If the @RCPhysicians@rcpsych@GeriSoc@APMPostTweets are ALL saying they do not think the safeguards go far enough-surely it should make MPs take a step back.
Is assisted dying a treatment?
A lot hinges on this, not least doctors’ duty to inform patients about treatment options.
The TIA Bill is silent on this.
The @rcpsych is not.
If the situation wasn’t so bleak, it would be almost comical to see how the very factors that prevent most disadvantaged groups (those with the poorest health) from accessing care seem to have been selected to streamline these same groups towards assisted suicide.
Cc @soniasodha
The same factors contribute to ‘missingness’ in primary care, one of the most blatant manifestations of health inequalities and obstacles to access to care… These mechanisms are components of the #inversecarelaw
https://t.co/MFBkLEIYN7
Well, this would be the whole difference between *Common* subscribers and *Premium+* subscribers in a dystopian world, no?
But we don’t live in such a world, do we?
Cc @ProfMarkTaubert
I don't want to live in a society where people with complicated lives and vulnerabilities are seen as expendable in easing the suffering of others. But that's exactly what this assisted dying bill would achieve.
My Observer column.
Couldn't miss the tragic irony of this advert going home. The #assisteddyingbill allows the terminally ill to request an assisted death because of poverty or feeling obsolete. @UKLabour, assisted suicide mustn't be the solution to health inequality -will this be your legacy?
Nearly 30% of Track 2 #AssistedDying cases involved individuals living in poverty & 61% were women. Research shows that women are disproportionately affected by intimate partner violence, frequently receive inadequate medical care& are twice as likely to attempt suicide as men
@Humanists_UK@womensaid
I voted against the Assisted Dying legislation in Parliament today.
We should be helping people to live comfortable pain-free lives, on their own terms, before we think about making it easier for them to die.
Freedom in death is only possible if you've had freedom in life.
Solve the social gradient of health, the inverse care law, and stop austerity as default policy and then we’ll start to talk about eligibility.
‘The eligibility criteria include that the person has […] reached this decision voluntarily, without coercion or pressure’
As doctors, we sometimes spot the most obvious cases of coercion. But i've completely missed serious cases. I remember one which was picked up by an observant social worker.
“I’m shocked a Labour government would do this…and make this one of the first things they do.”
“Do you blame the Prime Minister for that?”
“Of course…”
Christian Fraser speaks to actor and campaigner Liz Carr in the moments after MPs backed proposals to legalise assisted dying. #Newsnight
@ProfMarkTaubert Interesting. Photos used to illustrate #assisteddying papers also tend to focus on hands… but health professionals wear gloves there (whereas they usually don’t in #palliativecare iconography…) 🤔
“You do touch on the slippery slope argument, which is the potential for cost savings if people choose to opt for assisted dying rather than stay in the care of the care providers or the NHS,” he said in answer to a question.
https://t.co/5JJOKE2cwr