Chapter 28: End of life care
Skip chapter table of contents and go to main content
Prescribing of medications for patients who have hours/days to live
The aim of the prescribing of medications in the terminal phase of life is to ensure they are prescribed in advance to avoid uncontrolled symptoms and distress for the patient. For those patients who may be at home, the prescribing of anticipatory medications can often prevent unnecessary admissions to hospital.
Principles of prescribing at this time include (Sleeman [52]):
- stopping of non‐essential medications
- converting oral medications to the subcutaneous route if the patient is no longer able to tolerate medications by mouth
- considering having anticipatory medications prescribed.
