COPD: criteria to assist in the identification of the palliative phase

For people with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), hospital admission can be associated with a poor prognosis. Consequently, the end stage of the illness needs to be recognized for timely palliative care to be initiated. Tools to enhance the palliative phase such as the Gold Standards Framework and the Liverpool Care Pathway rely on the recognition of the final phase of a person's life. The illness trajectory of cancer makes this recognition far easier than for COPD, as a result many patients and their families manage at home with limited support. Lincolnshire Respiratory Network has developed criteria to help recognize the end-stage COPD, which correlate well with recent recommendations from the Consultation on a Strategy for Services for COPD in England (Department of Health, 2010). However, there needs to be appropriate training to assist practitioners in their confidence to refer patients with end-stage COPD to palliative care providers.