“Practitioners should use treatments and doses that are clinically indicated to alleviate the person’s suffering. “This indicates regulatory bodies are not seeking to blame practitioners when death occurs in the presence of opioid administration. “The study identified 12 cases in publicly available electronic databases across all Australian jurisdictions, and of those, only two had adverse findings recorded, and neither led to criminal proceedings,” he said. Professor Mitchell said an overcautious attitude could result in people suffering needlessly at the end of their lives. “It is reassuring that doctors’ intentions to alleviate suffering and adhere to good clinical practice has been respected.” “In fact the researchers found no such criminal proceedings had been brought in Australia against doctors. “The research indicates regulatory bodies are not seeking to blame practitioners when a patient dies in the presence of opioid administration,” he said. Professor Mitchell said a study he co-authored should alleviate doctors’ fears and help ensure patients received proper medical care. “While treatments such as opioids may theoretically shorten life marginally, it is the disease that causes death, not the treatment.” “The reality is that the person is dying. “The fear is that the use of medicines to minimise suffering and distress at the very end of life may hasten death and be construed by critics as euthanasia by stealth.
#Do opiates at end of life hasten death professional
“Some are choosing to abandon end-of-life care altogether rather than risk professional ruin should they persist in the use of any opioid therapy,” Professor Mitchell said.
Palliative care expert Professor Geoffrey Mitchell said opioid overuse and some states’ new assisted dying legislation had put end-of-life care clinicians “between a rock and a hard place”.
Some doctors fear litigation and professional ruin if they are seen to have overprescribed opioids to terminally ill patients, according to a University of Queensland researcher.
0 kommentar(er)
