In 1998, the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) and the Royal College of General Practioners (RCGP) established a joint working group on euthanasia chaired by Sir Stephen Tumin. The resulting position statement, which was approved by the RCP council but not by the RCGP,1 concluded that there was no reason for abandoning the profession’s established view that acts motivated by a clear intention t...

This discussion follows a series of high profile cases involving a terminally ill child, Charlie Gard. These cases are significant as they trace the complexities that arise when parents and medical teams do not agree as well as addressing the question of whether there is a right to access experimental treatment.

In recent years, the homeless population has received much attention as authorities attempt to comprehend this phenomenon and offer solutions. When striving to establish a relationship with the homeless person, many problems arise. We encounter this dilemma when respecting the right of the mentally ill to dwell neglected in the streets and simultaneously observe their inability to comprehend pr...

The intensity of hospital care provided to chronically ill Medicare patients varies greatly among regions, independent of illness. We examined the associations among hospital care intensity, the technical quality of hospital care, and patients' ratings of their hospital experiences. Greater inpatient care intensity was associated with lower quality scores and lower patient ratings; lower qualit...

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The report of a working party of the Royal College of Physicians, Acute Medicine: making it work for patients, seeks to improve hospital care of patients who are acutely ill and highlights the developing role of consultant physicians in acute medicine.