TY - JOUR T1 - End-of-life planning with frail patients attending general practice: an exploratory prospective cross-sectional study JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - e661 LP - e666 DO - 10.3399/bjgp16X686557 VL - 66 IS - 650 AU - Eoin J Dunphy AU - Sarah C Conlon AU - Sarah A O’Brien AU - Emer Loughrey AU - Brendan J O’Shea Y1 - 2016/09/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/66/650/e661.abstract N2 - Background End-of-life planning means decision making with patients, formulating and recording decisions regarding their end-of-life care. Although clearly linked with benefits including improved quality of life, reduced hospital admissions, and less aggressive medical care, it is still infrequently undertaken and is regarded as challenging by healthcare professionals.Aim To ascertain the feasibility of improving the identification of patients at high risk of dying in general practice and the acceptability of providing patients identified with an end-of-life planning tool.Design and setting Exploratory prospective cross-sectional study in four general practices.Method Patients at high risk of dying were identified during routine consulting by their GP, using the Supportive and Palliative Care Indicators Tool (SPICT). Patients identified were invited to participate, and provided with Think Ahead — an end-of-life planning tool, which has been used previously in general practice. Participants completed telephone surveys, assessing their response to Think Ahead, and the acceptability of the GP raising end-of-life issues during routine consulting.Results Provision of Think Ahead to a purposive sample of preterminal patients identified by GPs was feasible, acceptable to most patients, and somewhat effective in increasing discussion among families and in practice on end-of-life planning.Conclusion The SPICT and Think Ahead tools were mostly acceptable, effective, and enabling of discussions on end-of-life care in general practice. ER -