Member

The consequence of that requirement is that no doctor can comply with this provision without knowing the full details of the patient’s position, their condition or prognosis or the available palliative care. The doctor who does it must be in possession of that material. In addition, because this is a legal requirement, you can raise it, as a doctor, only in that context; namely, you have to provide the whole context. There will have to be guidance, and I am absolutely sure that there will be guidance from the GMC and, if he chooses to do so, from the Secretary of State issuing a code of practice, making it clear that such a preliminary discussion can take place only in that context. The material saying that a random doctor could give this is completely wrong; it would be breaking the law if they did. The circumstances are as I have described them.