• Quality of Life

The human experience will always be integral to our clinical practice. Dr Arani Nitkunan, consultant in neurology, eloquently describes the impact that her elderly aunt, Sinnamma, had on her approach to patient care.1 As a consultant in palliative medicine, I have always believed that the provision of palliative care, in the form of symptom control or comfort measures, should run alongside any disease-modifying treatment and that this, as with end-of-life care, is ‘everybody’s business’. In the UK, ‘end of life’ is defined as the expected last 12 months of life but it is often thought to refer only to the dying phase. Across progressive neurological conditions, the rate of change, potential for disease-modifying approaches and nature of symptoms will vary but in real terms, almost all of these conditions are incurable and therefore …