Primary care and coronavirus

Right now, conversations around end of life care are even more difficult than usual. They may have to be shorter, or take place through personal protective equipment (PPE) or over the phone.

We have created the recordings to replicate telephone and Skype calls and illustrate the following scenarios:

• An older patient who has co-morbidities but is currently well. Their GP phones to discuss advance care planning.
• An elderly patient at home with multiple co-morbidities and COVID symptoms, in a Skype conversation with their GP.
• The daughter of a patient in a care home phones her mother's GP on learning that her mother has COVID-19.
• A follow-up phone call from a GP to a patient with advanced bowel cancer and liver metastases.

This is part of our Courageous Conversations package. These recordings provide some useful strategies, words and phrases. There are also learning points and links to other resources on this subject. 

We have more information about having difficult conversations with your patients and their families.

The Macmillan coronavirus hub has lots of information for people with cancer, from how it is affecting work, to information about treatment.

If you have a patient who is worried they may have cancer and is unsure how coronavirus may affect what happens next, our page Coronavirus guidance for people worried they have cancer is for them.

For questions about what will happen to people's treatment during coronavirus, our page Cancer treatment and coronavirus may help.