Terminal care in the home.

Abstract

We report on a 16-week study of the terminal care given to 118 patients who died at home at the end of a chronic illness. We describe the clinical features of the care and how these were managed, we compare the doctors' and relatives' view of the patients' suffering and awareness of death, and we explore the implications of death at home for general practitioner, nursing and other support services and for the relatives who care for the patient.