When you know your days are numbered, you might stop to think how you want to spend those last days. At times, medical emergencies can put patients into conditions or stress in which they cannot express their own wishes. It’s often difficult to convey complex demands when there’s a medical frenzy, and part of the stress can be from lack of organization. To avoid this, many patients with chronic illnesses often have an end of life plan which expresses how they would like to be treated if they are seriously ill or dying.
Now, as originally reported in the Evening Standard, London has rolled out an online end of life plan called myCMC (Co-ordinate My Care), which encourages all Londoners to fill out their end-of-life wishes so that the NHS can follow them should the occasion arise. It specifically had been rolled out as well for people with long term conditions, including many rare diseases. This includes their religious beliefs, whether they want to be resuscitated, to go home instead of to their hospital, or if they like to be cremated. The creators of the plan suggests by showing the patients their wishes will be respected, the plan will deter people from opting into foreign clinics like the Swiss clinic Dignitas, which offers end-of-life assisted suicide by doctors, a practice that is illegal in Great Britain and for which doctors can face jail time.
The CMC Plan
The new care plan tells medics the patients’ wishes from the moment they dial 999. The plan additionally lays out the person’s health conditions and medical history for the medical staff and can guide better treatment. People can outline if they want to spend their final time at home, in a hospital, should they be treated in a medical emergency or should they be let without medical intervention. All of these important questions are answered preemptively. It also keeps patients out of the hospital who don’t want to be there. According to Professor Julia of the Royal Marsden Hospital Riley in the Evening Standard, “more than half of Londoners die in hospital but this falls to 20 per cent for those with a CMC plan.” Its common to race to the hospital only to spend one’s last moments in a sterile white space with busy medical staff.This denies a patient the chance to die with dignity in one’s space in one’s own way.
Any Londoner is encouraged to include themselves- a process that includes registering online with their plans, which are then sent to their doctor. who will meet the patient to review their decisions before being added to the database. They can update it at their ease. There have been about 70,000 plans in London to date.
