Consultant recommends more 'death' experience for medical students

The clinical community has been accused of neglecting palliative care in medical students’ training.

Dr Steve Plenderleith, palliative care consultant at St Mary’s Hospice, Selly Park, has criticised the system as he says it doesn’t allow medical students to spend enough time with patients suffering from long-term illnesses.

Dr Plenderleith believes medical students need to spend more time in palliative training to find out how to access hospice services, and learn how to communicate with terminally ill patients from an emotional perspective.

He is planning a series of palliative care roadshows for medical students around Birmingham in November.