Informing the Patient about Palliative Care: Legal Considerations

Abstract

The obligation of a doctor to provide information about a patient’s health is a frequently discussed topic in Polish literature on medical law. To date, publications have focused on the topics of providing information about the diagnosis or about possible treatment options and discussing test results, and rarely discuss the termination of causal treatment, giving information instead on specialized symptomatic management and palliative care for patients with a chronic disease or a disease with an unfavourable prognosis. Providing honest and reliable information in this area increases patients’ awareness of their current health status, and thus allows them to make appropriate decisions related to the abandonment of futile therapy, and also reduces the distress associated with a fear of a lack of specialized medical care and physical, social and spiritual suffering. This article presents legal considerations for informing patients about specialist palliative care.