Palliative Medicine in the UK c.1970 - 2010

This book is part of the Wellcome Witnesses to Twentieth Century Medicine series, a collection of transcripts of Witness Seminars in which "significant figures in twentieth-century medicine are invited to discuss specific discoveries or events in recent medical history." All of the books in the series are available for purchase or as free PDF downloads from the Wellcome Witnesses web site from Queen Mary College, University of London at http://www.history.qmul.ac.uk/research/modbiomed/wellcome_witnesses/.

The focus of palliative medicine is the relief of pain and suffering of patients with serious illness. It can be applied to any stage of an illness and for illnesses which are curable as well as terminal. The modern palliative care show more movement originated in post-World War II England, in response to the lack of attention paid to seriously ill and dying patients by physicians, who often neglected those whom they could not cure. Many of those who chose to enter the field personally witnessed inadequate or inhumane treatment of these patients, and they were inspired to find better ways to treat them as human beings and members of families, rather than a diseased organ system and in isolation from loved ones.

Palliative care began as a grass roots movement within hospice care, which deals with incurably ill or dying patients, and it included a variety of clinical and non-clinical professionals, who provided a multidisciplinary and comprehensive approach that was individualized to the patient and family. The initial efforts to provide compassionate care took place in established hospices in the 1950s and 1960s, and in 1967 St. Christopher's Hospice was founded by Dame Cicely Saunders, a nurse, social worker and physician who is considered to be the most important figure in the modern hospice and palliative care movement. Through the diligent work of Dame Saunders and others standardization of the management of pain and suffering of patients was accomplished, and palliative medicine became a recognized and respected medical specialty, which was adopted in the hospital setting, hospice and long term care centers, and within communities for patients who wished to spend their last days at home surrounded by their families.

Palliative Medicine in the UK c. 1970-2010 provides an interesting oral history of the palliative care movement from those who helped to found it and others who were essential in its development over the past half century, particularly the late Dame Saunders, along with the challenges that lie ahead to provide comprehensive care in the face of National Health Service cutbacks and the fragmentation and specialization that has become increasingly prevalent in 21st century Western medicine. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in palliative care or the history of medicine. show less