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Letter
Last 24 hours: opioid use survey
  1. Mary Miller,
  2. Caroline Schwab,
  3. Tammy Koay and
  4. Rachel Lee
  1. Palliative Care, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Mary Miller, Palliative Care, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford OX3 7LE, UK; mary.miller{at}ouh.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjspcare-2022-003603

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    Background

    The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) provides advice and guidance to improve health and social care across the UK. Care of dying adults in the last days of life (NG31) advises on classes of medications that may be used to ensure symptom management but does not suggest doses.1 The literature does not describe the range, or median, dose prescribed and administered when managing pain, breathlessness, delirium or excess respiratory secretions at the end of life except for studies reporting on care at the end of life for patients dying of SARS-CoV-2.2

    The National Audit of Care at the End of Life (NACEL) is a comparative audit of the quality and outcomes of care experienced by dying persons and those important to them during the last admission leading to death in acute hospitals, community hospitals and mental health inpatient providers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The audit does not collect information on medications used. The authors collected information on opioid use in the last 24 hours of life alongside the case note …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @dr_mary_miller

    • Contributors MM developed the idea, was involved at all stages and wrote the paper. CS and RL undertook the data extraction. TK and RL reviewed the work.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.