This guideline is addressed to health care professionals. However, it may also help patients and the public to understand what to expect of their doctors, in circumstances in which patients and their families may be particularly vulnerable and in need of support.
This guideline is not, and cannot be, exhaustive. Furthermore, each patient’s circumstance is likely to be unique to the patient and their families and merits an individualized approach. Thus, the health care professional must use his/her clinical judgement in applying the principles this guideline sets out to the situations faced in the end-of-life care of individual patients.