Supportive and palliative care for patients with COPD.

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the most common respiratory disorder in the UK (Shee, 2001). In 1999, the number of people who died of COPD was equal to the number who died of lung cancer (Hill and Muers, 2000). Patients' knowledge of the high level of morbidity of this disease has a large impact on their social, psychological and economic status (Addington-Hall et al, 1998). Patients with COPD, unlike those with lung cancer, may go from crisis to crisis, requiring many hospital admissions, and are more likely to die in hospital after an acute admission (Edmonds et al, 2001).