The World Health Organization (WHO) defined palliative care as an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing the problems associated with life-threatening illness, through the prevention and relief of suffering by means of early identification and impeccable assessment and treatment of pain and other problems, physical, psychosocial and spiritual.
WHO recommended that planning for care at the end of life should be responsive to patient choice regarding place of care and place of death.
The following links relate to the delivery of palliative care within cardiac disease:
Healthcare Improvement Scotland:
Living and Dying Well:
Improvement Hub Scotland: LWIC – Palliative and End of Life Care
Page last reviewed: 28 Jul 2020
