Interim guidance has just (11 December) been published – jointly – by the British Medical Association, General Medical Council and Royal College of Physicians – in response to recent legal developments in relation to the way decisions concerning the withdrawal of Clinically Assisted Nutrition and Hydration are made from patients in a permanent vegetative state (PVS) or minimally conscious state (MCS) following sudden onset profound brain injury
The BMA/GMC and RCP are working to issue updated and in-depth guidance on good clinical and professional practice for making decisions about CANH which they are aiming to publish in May 2018. The current document has been published to provide interim guidance for doctors and other clinical professionals pending publication of this new guidance.