End of life care: Adult patients who lack capacity and are expected to die within hours or days

1. 123. If a patient is expected to die within hours or days, and you consider that the burdens or risks of providing clinically assisted nutrition or hydration outweigh the benefits they are likely to bring, it will not usually be appropriate to start or continue treatment. You must consider the patient’s needs for nutrition and hydration separately.
2. 124. If a patient has previously requested that nutrition or hydration be provided until their death, or those close to the patient are sure that this is what the patient wanted, the patient’s wishes must be given weight and, when the benefits, burdens and risks are finely balanced, will usually be the deciding factor.
3. 125. You must keep the patient’s condition under review, especially if they live longer than you expected. If this is the case, you must reassess the benefits, burdens and risks of providing clinically assisted nutrition or hydration, as the patient’s condition changes.