Background: Guidance supporting care delivery in the last days of life has been implemented across Wales for the past 16 years. Continuous central monitoring and recent developments for care of the dying patient in England, provided the impetus to undertake a thorough overhaul of the Welsh guidance.
Methods: Recommendations of the National Health Service (NHS) Leadership Alliance for Care of Dying People, supported by outcomes of a Welsh electronic survey, resulted in prototype guidance being drawn up. The new guidance was tested in a variety of care settings and agreement reached it was fit for purpose.
Outcomes: This paper reports on the progress of reviewing the previous process-led guidance to address the current focus on providing individualised care for the patient and those important to them at the end-of-life. The new guidance resulting from this process is discussed, quality monitoring systems are described and the national progress with implementation across Wales
reported.