End of life: a sedative soon available for palliative care at home

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It is an advance in the treatment of end of life. In France, general practitioners will soon be able to prescribe deep sedation for patients at home. The High Health Authority, seized by Agnès Buzyn, gave the green light. The practice was until now reserved for the strictly hospital setting.

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It was a request from the doctors, now authorized. In four months, general practitioners who will need it for a patient at the end of their life will be able to obtain Midazolam in pharmacies.

Midazolam is a powerful sedative only available in hospitals. It was because he had obtained it illegally to administer it to five elderly people that a Norman doctor had been charged and prohibited from practicing medicine.

The High Health Authority, like practitioners, believed that the drug should be accessible to doctors. It will be necessary in the coming weeks to change the terms of sale of Midazolam. And it will also define the conditions of its use .

This possibility for general practitioners to use Midazolam should be well supervised to avoid any drift.

The decision will have to be taken collectively, by a team made up of the attending physician and several health professionals.

► Also to listen: End of life at home: "The petition did not intervene in the HAS calendar"

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